The Littlest General
by NightingaleComics
Summary: Leia Organa never exsisted in this universe. Instead she was raised at Leia Skywalker. And that changed things... A lot of things... But Mainly Rex was starting to wonder if it had any impact on his now missing hair. How could a General, even one so small as Leia could cause so much change? Was it for good or was it for bad? Who even knows? the 501st raise Leia.
1. Rex

**The Togruta and the Toddler**

Five years after the Clone Wars, Rex found them. It was on Randon-III of all places. Rex's unit had been called in to clear the sector of possible rebel forces that had gained a foothold on the planet. Maybe there had been actual rebels on the planet, maybe there wasn't. Rex hadn't really cared anymore these days.

A good soldier follows orders.

But all that Rex saw of Randon was pain and suffering.

The higher ups claimed to be a soldier was a good thing. They were the ones doing the protecting from those who preyed on others. Soldiers protected the galaxy, protected Sentient Beings' rights and freedoms.

Rex had heard these lies all before. He's heard it time and time again. Back in the days of the Clone Wars, Republic Senators shouted the same thing. Planets screamed for justice aid and mercy. Separatists spluttered off, trying to take care of their people, but gained a war for their efforts.

These things are nothing new for Rex.

The Togruta holding a youngling while gripping a familiar shoot blade with knuckles turning white from her grip is new though.

It takes a painstaking long second for Rex to place her markings as familiar. Far longer than what it should have, a distant part of his brain mockling tells him.

The Togruta is Ahsoka~ his brilliant Ahsoka. The commander who fought like the suns gave her fire from the universe itself as fuel for her spirit to burn. Her eyes, once brilliant with the life they held in her grip stared at the former captain with a terrible paralyzing fear in those depths.

Rex could only lower his blaster, eyes drowning in this mirage from a better past what seemed like a lifetime ago.

The Togruta's montrals were longer. The patterns that decorated them had begun to take a distinctive shape to each one. The headdress that had once been akul teeth from her padawan days had also been changed to something sleeker, more metallic looking.

Dirt and blood caked both her and the little one.

Ahsoka's eyes filled with an unmasked terror Rex had never seen before as the clone unconsciously stepped forwards. The Ahsoka he knew had never looked at her men with such cold fear. Her eyes had once been filled with only warmth and affection when they fell on white armour.

Now her eyes looked on with horror, forcing Rex to halt in his tracks.

"Stay back." A feral animalistic growl slipped through her bared teeth. "I don't know who the Kriff you are. You'll stay back and won't touch her."

The her in question was the youngling, Rex quickly figured out.

The girl was young, that much the clone had figured. She wore clothes that had more patches then original material in them. A green grimy tunic that didn't hide the layers of dirt on her skin and brown leggings that barely reached her knees. Her hair had been done in two simple plaited rows that looked like they had been done with care and attention.

Rex's mind flashed backwards briefly to another time when she turned her head and looked at him. The girl's eyes; brightly piercing warm amber colored eyes, unerringly found his through the bucket. They showed with energy Rex hadn't seen in such a long time as the two locked gazes for just a moment.

The white shoto blade cut sharp defined angles of light and shadows across her visage. On anyone else it would have given the person a harsh, cruel, and unforgiving look.

But on the Youngling, it highlighted the same familiar curve of her cheekbone, the high planes of her forehead with short strands of curling hair and the softening slant of her nose and lips.

Rex took a step backwards.

Outside, the Stormies were barking orders and dragging civies and rebs out of buildings in the darkening night. Large walkers and ammunition rounds where the cascading rumbling rhythm that underlined the screaming and wailing duets that carried.

Rex heard none of it. He had fallen into brown fierce eyes and lost himself in another time all together.

It was nearly a decade ago, longer than the expiration date of a Trooper such as himself to have survived. It wasn't Stormies and Rebel Commandos fighting each other with Civies caught in the unfortunate middle.

It had been a battle of Clankers and Clones. A blue lightsaber lighting a cleared path; held aloft by a Jedi general proudly. Blue eyes looked across the scene of pain and hurt with the same fierce defiance and undying determination of beskar'gam .

"Soka!" The tiny girl cried out, breaking Rex away from that better place. She dug small delicate fragile fingers into Ahsoka's leather shoulder armour.

"Stay away from us!" Ahsoka lifted her chin and her shoto higher, clutching the girl minutely closer to her body.

Rex dropped the E-11 blaster. It was a far cry from his beloved old decommissioned DC-17's. There wasn't a lot of the old universe left laying around these days was there?

"Commander?"

"How~" Ahsoka lowered her shoto slightly, before she remembered this was the enemy in front of her.

The sheer incredible sound of her disbelief hurt Rex's heart in unmistakably new ways. Ahsoka's instincts seemed to keep the girl hidden by the pure light and her body. The woman shifted her weight, turning her body just slightly so she would catch a blaster bolt with either blade or body before the child could get hit.

"It's Rex, commander." Hands reached up to remove the white plastiod helmet from his face, revealing unusual blonde hair and a clone's face.

"Rex?"

Ahsoka demanded in question. "You're alive!?"

"Aye commander." Rex smiled briefly, moving on once the shoto had finally been put away. "You two need to leave, commander. It's not safe, even if you're not rebels."

Ahsoka shook her head stubbornly. "I can't leave her."

"Commander, as soon as they find your 'sabers, you are both as good as dead." Rex argued fiercely, eyes burning with a sudden need to protect this now grown woman and tiny fragile child.

"I can't Rex! Leia is all that I have. I can't leave her.

Leia reached upwards and patted the montrals. Gaining her guardian's attention in a way she knew how. "Soka! They're coming. It'll be okay."

"You're right kid. It will be. Everything will be just fine. We just have to stick together, right Leia." Ahsoka gathered the child closer, murmuring words into hair as she rubbed the girl's back and shoulders. "We'll be okay. You and me, Leia."

"Ahsoka, you've got to get out of here. The Stormies aren't going to leave anything untouched in their search."

Ahsoka glanced upwards. Her face and body was wrapped protectively around the young girl. "You're right Rexster. Those Imps aren't just going to let us slip though and escape their grasp though."

And that was when Rex opened his mouth.

He opened his mouth and out came words that formed a karkin' insane plan. Cody was going to kill him the next time they met up. There was no doubt about that, only on whether the meetup happened in this life or the next one, that was. Rex might die from this kriffed, possibly doomed Jedi thought out, insane from the very beginning sithspawn of an idea!

But none of those thoughts that were running through the Captain's showed on his face as he spoke. Rex was a professional, and as a professional he had learned that when General Skywalker's plans got crazier; so did the chances of coming out of it alive and successful.

"Give me the girl, Commander."

"But~"

Whatever protests lay on Ahsoka's lips were; they soon died as the sound and feel of a large concussion Fernandez strike went off nearby.

Their time to flee had almost run out.

The woman scrambled upwards, clutching Leia is her arms as she mirrored Rex in the middle of their only cover.

"Commander, it'll be easier for you to get off planet without having to worry about the ad'ika and me." Rex shucked his chest and back armour-plates. Arm guards and shin and leg bracers soon joined the matched set of the pile. He was left in just the Blacks part of his uniform. Deft fingers grasped the leather gun belt, pulling it free of the plastids armour. The blaster that had been forgotten had also been gathered and Rex made sure his weapon was primed if he needed it.

"We'll meet up after, commander. Promise."

So Ahsoka passed the clone a tiny brown haired child. A demand fell from her lips as she once more trusted a man from under her command. Eyes begged the man with things that Rex couldn't help himself but bend to her demands.

"Promise me, you'll protect her, Rex. She's the most important thing in this universe and all that I have left. Sor protect her. Please."

"I'll protect her. No worries." Rex adjusted his hold, shifting the precious small bundle of life as he gripped her better.

"Thank you." Ahsoka looked at Leia with sadness. Orange fingers gently wrapped around a pale white face and the woman leaned her head forwards. "Be good for your Uncle Rex, okay Leia? He'll look after you until I can come back."

"We really have to leave soon, Commander. This was supposed to be the last zone to search and clear."

Ahsoka backed away, blue eyes locked onto Rex's and Leia's figures in the smoking ruins. She was vanishing into thin air, the way one turned off a communicator. Her smile had lost it's joyful tinge and it flickered on her lips like a struggling holoprojector.

"Her name is Leia Amidala Skywalker."

Oh.

Oh Kriffing

Hell.


	2. Jesse and Kix

Hey Guys!

I'm back with more of the Littlest General! Yay! The response to this completely insane idea has been overwhelming and I'm sorry I haven't responded sooner but it's flu season and when you work healthcare, it sucks! But Anyway! Enjoy! OH! And if you have any prompts or ideas for this AU, please by all means leave me a comment or a pm and I will get it answered or posted ASAP! Because I love them!

Three Clones and a Youngling… And no not the Holofilm, guys.

It is on a wet rainy planet several months later when Rex encounters a problem. Now Rex being Rex, and that meaning the Captain does not become worried or flustered easily. But the planet reminds our Captain of Felucia and their belongings do not dry out and Leia gains a horrible deep rattling grating sound of a cough that Rex becomes concerned.

Every time the young girl breathes, it is a wheezy rattle similar to a ship shaking apart while it enters atmo.

Rex has been planetside campaigns where Troopers cannot get dry. He's seen them getting sicker and sicker and it never getting better. It is while the two are running blind on a nameless planet, looking for a medic or a doctor and trying to avoid attention.

But the two cannot stop. They're on and Imperial planet, looking for a way off and trying to not gain attention to themselves because that's another thing that makes the two stand out.

Leia is Force sensitive.

And he should have by the gods known. Leia is of Karking course General Skywalker's daughter! Of Course she's bound to become a Jetii!

And that is how Rex runs into two of the vod'a.

It is in the darkened alleyways and word of mouth, that Rex learns of a medic who is down right temperamental and a good shot. He doesn't like Imperials or Rebels and Rex decides to take a chance. He bundles Leia up in the driest blanket they currently own and treks through half a city's underground and slums, but find him they do.

The youngling's eyes are bright with fever and she's shaking like a falling apart ship when they end up standing in front of the door. Leia grabs Rex and says "They're coming, Rex."

The door opens to that of a blaster pointing at Rex's nose. Seeing the well worn nose of a DC-15A blaster pointed at his face, Rex starts swearing up a storm.

Because of course! They're one of his! So Rex shoulders his way inside while Jesse is regrouping about having pointed his blaster at his commanding officer when another thing happens.

"Rex?!" There behind Jesse, sits a vod'a with triangular shaped marks shaved into his hair and.

"Jesse? Kix?" Rex loosens his grip on Leia as Jesse bolts the door shut and steps aside.

"What are you doing here?" Jesse asks, holstering the blaster and finally noticing the youngling.

"Leia's sick. Came looking for a medic. Turns out it's you two." Rex nodded at the small shivering form clinging to his shoulder.

Leia lifts her head enough to look at the two. Her hand grasps Rex's coat through her damp blanket but she doesn't offer any words except for another hacking cough.

"Right right." Kix lowers his blaster and grbs the med pack from beside a well worn table while Jesse darts to the back room and grabs dry clothes and blankets for the two. "Let's see about fixing that cough, shall we, youngling?"

It is later, when Leia is curled up against Rex finally asleep and her fever mostly gone when the questions start.

"Wouldn't have figured you for becoming a Buir, Rex." Jesse comments, side eyeing the small child.

"Jesse, you di'kut. Leia is Skywalker's ad." Rex makes a movement to hit his brother upside the head but he's out of range.

"She's the Alorir's?" Kix looked up from tearing apart a blaster. The rag in his hands never stopping.

"Yeah." Rex sighed, nodding his head. "The Commander and I ran into each other a few months back and I was supposed to get Leia out and look after her til she found us again." Rex tugged Leia closer, tucking the blanket tighter around the young girl. Even with the fever gine, the rattle in her chest still made him pause. "Turns out, she's the Alorir's."

Jesse paused, eyes searching Rex's. "I though the Jetii banned attachment and all of that duse."

"The Alorir wasn't a very good Jetii, now was he?" Kix asked rhetorically from his spot. His eyes were focused on his work, but his ears were focused on the two in the corner. "What are we going to do with a verd'ika?"

"I don't know, Vod. But we owe it to our Alorir to protect her." Rex slumped against the wall, feeling like he didn't have the answers for once.

"Alorir Skywalker is dead, isn't he?" Jesse quietly asked, bringing up the one thought the three of them had but didn't utter.

"I imagine so. Even he couldn't have survived the Purge. Not by himself anyway." Kix quietly answered, the rag slowing it's methodical repetition.

"Even if he was alive, at least we can protect Leia'ika. If she's anything like her buirs, she's going to need the three of us guarding her soon enough." Rex nodded his head down at the sleeping pile of innocence.

Kix finally stopped his cleaning and nodded surely in agreement. "Rex is right. The commander trusted you and you got us. If anything happens to the Alorir'ika, there is going to be a whole lotta shebbs being kicked."

Mando'a Translations.

Alorir- Literally Leader, but also the closest thing I can find to General.

Verd'ika- Little soldier. Term of affection

Jetii- Jedi

Vod'a- Brothers

Duse- rubbish/waste.

Di'kut- Idiot.

Ad- daughter

Buir- parent

Shebbs- butt


	3. Stronger

*Slides new Chapter onto Table* Sooo... about that wait? Yeah sorry, NaNo killed me and I'm just now starting to write again. But hey! New Chapter!Chapter Text

**Littlest General**

**Chapter III**

**Stronger**

_"In the darkest place is the faintest light."- Stronger, Finding Neverland the Musical _

Rex heaved a sigh, feeling his lower back crack as he stood up with a crate in his arms. The stack on the Station's docking bay was gradually getting smaller, while the Cargo Hold was filling up. But that was the price to pay for passage these days. The ship wasn't much, it was only a XS Stock Freighter, but it would take the three Clones and the young child to their next planet.

Months had gone by and Jesse, Kix, and Rex kept traveling with Leia. The former commander of the 501st Legion knew their chances of re-finding Ahsoka were slipping from slim into the realm of near-impossible-possibly-closer-to-zero maybe finally hitting that we'll-never-find-her-but-we-aren't-going-to-admit-it-outloud-yet range. Even if that were the case, Rex wasn't going to admit that to their Verd'ika. Leia was six. She was already six, and already she had lost her mother and her father. Rex was not going to fekkin tell the child that her 'aunt' wasn't going to come back. Not if he could help it.

Rex didn't want to destroy her optimistic view. Not because she looked so innocent and young, but because it reminded the aging Clone so so much of his General that it hurts, but he also has to protect (guard) this tiny fierce thing because she is all that remains of Jedi General Anakin Skywalker of the 501st Legion.

Rex failed his General once. He failed when General Skywalker needed him the most by not being at his side and his General was gone because of it.

His Squad.

His Men

His General.

His Fault.

Rex's fault that he lost them. He hadn't been fast enough, strong enough, sure enough to protect them all in the Siege. And it hurt. It hurt Rex down to his bones and his heart gives that weird little odd stutter when he thinks of how they all died.

Did General Skywalker know his men turned on him? That the ones he fought with and laughed with and attempted and did the impossible with?-did he see them turn on him in those last moments? Did he even survive that first attack after Order 66 went out? Did he know what happened to his men?

Rex never found out and that made him hurt even worse on the bad days. Cause he didn't know how or where his General fell. (how many Clones fell before the General went down? How many of his Vod survived only to kill themselves later when they realized what happened?)

But he had Leia- sweet, precious, small, Leia. Rex had Leia and Jesse and Kix to protect now and he promised to not fail this time.

Force, he promised the Angels of Lego, and the Sand Spirits of Tatooine and the Old Queens of Naboo that he wouldn't fail them.

Not this time.

Cause tiny little Leia with her force abilities and her sharp intellegent words was something Rex could not loose.

Rex already lost the Torrent Company, his Squad, Carnivore and Execute Battalions, and Aurek company and unti Aurek-Seven and the ICS Unit. Rex lost hundreds of his brothers. He lost his Jettii.

His fault. Rex lost his Jettii, what kind of a Clone was he? It was his fault, couldn't they see that?

And Cody was out there somewhere in a Stormie armour…. But he had Jesse and Kix to look over as well, so maybe the good days could start to out number the bad days? But he still counted beds when it was a bad night and Rex didn't know to make things better except to keep searching for his Commander and hold this tiny possibly maybe they were a squad together til they found the Commander again?

So the three Clones and one small child bounced from the Hidian Way, stopping for a few short weeks on Kabal before dropping through Dravian Station then through the Llanic Spice Run. They switched ships passing through Tythe before heading to Arkanis and finally Ryloth. They stuck to planets in the Outer Rim, hoping to pass unnoticed and unseen. Not too far to be completely lawless like some worlds, but neither full of Imperial Troops and citizens to be suspicious either. It was hard at times to pass off as normal when they had three of the same faces.

Hoping beyond hope that the homeworld of the Twi'leks was going to be somewhere safe for them.

And it had been, for a few few short months. But Cham Syndulla and his group wanted freedom. And the Imperial Empire was not going to let second class citizens earn that freedom, if it meant they had to step in and burn the world to ash.

Which in large brought their small group to this specific docking bay and this specific falling apart beat up Freighter that looked like it was a one bad flight away from being space dust.

The ship gave all three of the Clones pause, but the riled up Twi'leks and Leaving Ryloth became an even bigger concern, so the three bartered with the Weequay captain for passage. A Crew that worked for safe passage off the Corellion Run.

The entire trip would up taking several weeks and Rex was not looking for to it at all.

PAGE BREAK

Captain Panva may have been a Weequay and she may have been odd and unquestioning of why three former Clone Troopers needed off Ryloth and oh by the way, this youngling also comes with us! But you get a crew for a short amount of time! But Captain Panva just knew something was up! It had been a number of years since she had heard from her sister's hushand's neice's son- that irritating notorious Hondo Onknaka and his gang, but she remembered the story of when he kept getting caught up with Jedi business.

Panva kept telling Hondo not to get caught up with Jedi! She told him that they were trouble and Jedi were insane and crazy and you couldn't profit at all with them all over your ship! So why had she let three former Clones and a youngling onto her ship?!

Panva mussed while flipping switches, reading her trustworthy Freighter to leave atmo and happened to glance at the undersized co-pilot sitting next to her. Panva thought it over as the stars began to streak across the bow and past the panes of her windows- she; Captain Panva of the Abandoned Lotus was a bleeding heart, senile, and starting to go down right potty in her old age.

That was the only explanation.

"Hit that toggle near your right elbow, Youngling."

Leia flipped the small switch, feeling the ship jolt and shudder and begin to hum like her insides. She felt the excite in the air, she could taste it and Leia stared out o the viewscreen with wide eyed wonder that always was on a youngling's face when the ship jumped.

Captain Panva smirked, braids clipping eachother as she finished hitting the last few switches. Younglings were all the same, it appeared.

"Come on, Little One. Let's go find your family, hmm?"

Yes, Jedi and Clones were trouble, she had told Her sister's husband's niece's son Hondo that all the time, but they were also full of adventure and you could almost always find a good deal of profiting somehow if you followed the right ones. And if you didn't? Well, she could always blame bad business on her bleeding, senile, aging heart. The Ohnaka gang were much too well known to not believe her when she claimed that.


	4. Leia

**The littlest General IV**

Leia

Leia was six. She was six standard years old and she knew how different she was from the other younglings.

Leia didn't have anyone to call mom or dad like the other kids. She had the Troopers; Rex, Kix, and Jesse. They weren't related to her. Oh no, but they were family in the same way Soka was as well.

They were a family because _they _had claimed Leia as such. They had been there in replacement of the missing parents. And they didn't have to be.

That wasn't the only thing either. Others had creche and batch mates. Younglings that were of the same squad or close together in age from different squads. They grew up together. They _played _together.

Leia had none.

Sometimes that bothered her. The young girl would wonder if she was supposed to have a batchmate. Someone who was younger by only minutes. A person who she called _vod. _A brother who would fight and harass and be harassed by. A boy who she dreamed of at times. He would often times have sandy hair and blue eyes and be kind and gentle and soft spoken. He would be the water to her brash impulsive fire. Maybe he had a grin that would make a sunrise dim in comparison. Maybe he liked tinkering with droids.

But he wasn't there.

The same way that her mother wasn't there. A mother who looked like her and had a gentle sweet voice and kind hands. A mother who would share a grin with her and it was so full of mischief, leia wanted in on the joke. A slight woman who wasn't tall, the same way Leia would never be tall and who _looked _just like Leia.

The same way that her father was missing from her side. A tall powerful man who was broad of shoulder and an easy laugh. Who would spin her around the room with that sandy haired boy and that kind gentle woman. Who tinkered with droids and taught her how to fly. The man who garnered such respect from Uncle Rex and such sorrow from Aunt Soka. A man who knew what he stood for and protected those he loved. The man, Leia called father, was the General of the 501st and she knew so little of him.

Lewis's oddities didn't end with her being alone. No, normal younglings often times lived on one planet. Sometimes two or three. Leia? She's been traveling nearly her whole life. First with Aunt Soka and then with the Clones. She has no home planet. She is not Leia Skywalker of Alderaan or Chandila or Hosnian Prime. She in fact has a better name, in her six year old mind that is. She is Leia Skywalker of the 501st.

She is Leia of the Clones. And itty bitty Leia she is, is proud of that fact. Soka taught her to be proud of what made her different. To be strong. But it is first Rex then Jesse and Kix who really teach her those things.

On nights that Leia felt loneliness done to her bones, Kix would find her with a cup of _atakai _and wrap her in a blanket. The clone is solid and warm and all Leia feels is _safety _when he gathers her close. His voice is a constant rumble as he tells her stories of The Wars. He'd tell her stories of Anakin Skywalker and his billions of brothers. Leia cannot keep her eyes open when he tells her stories and she always misses the end. But that's okay. Kix always has more stories to tell her.

Uncle Kix was good at that; mending wounds. When Leia is angry at the whole stupid fragging universe and the other crechelings over having a squad, Kix would fix it. He was always the one to find her when she felt sad and lonely and forgotten. Moments where she desperately needed that sandy haired boy beside her and wanted a batchmate like Kix and Jesse and Rex had each other.

When she is full of anger and rash and stubborn, Jesse is the one to search her out. Jesse is the one who ruffles her hair, laughing as her temper flares and her hands clench. Leia hates it when the other younglings push her around for being different and small. But Jesse is the one who teaches her how to live with it. He is the one who wakes her up before anyone else and teaches her how to fight. And Leia _loves _it. She loves the movement and the fierce good ache that is her lungs and heart heaving in her chest afterwards. She loves the burn in her muscles and the sweat coating her skin. Uncle Jesse is the best at teaching a small tiny girl who's shorter than all her peers how to let things go. When Leia comes grumbling home upset about bullies who always seem to catch her, Jesse helps her become faster. To trust her instincts and to learn how to weave in and out of obstacles and to dodge. When she can't run anymore, he teaches her how to lock her legs and throw her weight into her hips just right so that the person chasing will have one hell of a black eye.

Jesse is the one who hunts her down when Leia is still ready to fight, muscles and words ready to be wielded. But Jesse is the one who teaches her. How to harness her fire, her muscles, her tongue. And Leia loves it when it's just the two of them in the morning.

Rex is the one who she met after Soka left. Uncle Rex doesn't often times tell her stories of his brothers like Kix or how to easily throw a punch like Jesse. He's more frail then them, Leia realizes. More broken and lost then her other uncles and aunt. Soka always had Leia to take care of since she was a baby and Jesse and Kix always had each other. Rex had none. Til he found Leia and Ahsoka in the rubble. Rex was a soldier, he hid things behind armor and guns and a helmet. He is the one who makes sure that the four of them are out of trouble and fed. Rex is their rudder in this scary galaxy. He is the pilot of their small family and he takes it seriously.

Leia, too, thinks that's okay. Because they need someone to make sure they had a plan and a destination. Someone who makes sure that there's rations and blankets to go around. But she doesn't like it when his eyes fill with an unknown sadness when he looks at her sometimes. Like when she finds enough wires and parts to make dolls with instead of cloth and rope. His voice cracks when she accidentally yanks a meliroon fruit out of his hands using that feeling Soka calls the Force. Or that small hitched stumble when he loses her in front of a beat up junk yard, admiring a speeder bike. Uncle Rex was unusually quiet after that escapade. More so than usual. Leia excitedly tells her three uncles exactly how she could have fixed it and what sort of paint she was going to use and Jesse and Kix laugh and laugh. Rex is silent in the background and Leia doesn't know what to do with it.

But it is Rex who wraps her small hands around a blaster grip and steadies her as she learns to shoot. It is Rex kneeling in the dirt behind her as a grin blossoms over her face when she finally listens to that _feeling _and manages to just knock the old droid's faceplate. He is the one who is wrapped up in a giant tarlaqq hug as she loudly asks if he saw her hit it.


	5. Fives

**FIVES**

The four of them eventually stop at _Shaum Hii _ when Leia is about seven. Leia's powers were getting stronger all the time. Rex worried that while the constant moving was keeping them ahead of the Imperials, it _wasn't _doing Leia any good. It was a constant battle to remember that while children were naturally very adaptive, Leia wasn't created to handle the same things as the Clones.

So they traveled to Shaum Hii, where in the aftermath of the Siege and the ending days of the G.A.R, there lay an abandoned _Kelabe _class warship.

The ship herself was probably in mostly good working order except for the underbelly and the hyperdrive. Her bulkheads had carbon scoring and blaster fire scorches. Her hull was peppered with the same from nearly a decade ago. But the corridors were sturdy as was her hull. Their roof wasn't going to cave in during a heavy storm. The locals didn't give them a passing glance at their oddness either. Rex counted his few blessings.

The four moved in and began to call it their was eventually forced to go to a proper school and get some proper education. And afterwards, the Clones still taught her how to fight and train, still attempting to help harness her Force abilities in ways that Leia could understand them. But while Leia was at school; the Clones did their best to restore the former Warship to her full glory. They would go into town and work for the Locals occasionally, trading their work for parts and essentials.

They had been here nearly three-quarters of the Planet's rotation, when Fives ran into Rex. The A.R.C trooper looks settled in a way Rex hasn't seen him since Echo had gotten captured. There's a new proud tilt to his head and shoulders, a sure footed gait to him that Rex silently thanks the force for. His _Vod_ has done well with himself.

The other still speaks of things, the captain had given up, however. Fives speaks of a new war coming. New lines drawn in the sand. Of rebels and secrets and _hope_. Of a rebellion needing more experienced soldiers and more manpower. He speaks of leaving a better future for their younglings.

Rex can't help but listen to his _Vod, _it is the least he can do for Fives after all. But the captain already knows his answer; he _cannot _leave Leia. Rex cannot go and fight, but Fives is persistent.

Fives speaks of a galaxy in suffering, in pain under an Emperor's cold greedy clenched fist. Of his Second's sheer strength and skill and bloodlust, a second that is a _sith. _Of greed and agony and hatred and oh so much suffering.

Rex doesn't know what to say to his _vod, _he had given that life up. Rex was still a soldier but he knew he had a new mission. It was no longer to fight on the front lines, with screams and blaster bolts in his ears at night. No more Clankers, Stormies, and Imps. No more losing Shinies before they even paint their armour.

Rex now had a tiny frail little girl with brown eyes and hair, who looks like her mother but is all her father. Leia _needed_ him in ways that a galaxy in war does not. This was his mission. Ashoka asked him to protect her, and he will. He will protect her because he failed to protect his commander and his General.

Fives understood. His _vod _ got a knowing gleam in his eyes as he punched Rex's unarmoured shoulder. "It's alright, Cap'. I've got three of my own _ad'ikas _to look after back home."

Rex nodded tiredly, feeling the blaster burn of a stress headache slowly creeping up on him. The galaxy had sought to bless them with _three _more of the A.R.C trooper? _Force have mercy!_

before Fives disappeared into the bustling market, he tossed a silver commlink to Rex. "If you do change your mind or need help, you can reach me on that, sir."

And with those parting words, Fives left him standing in the middle of a busy market street. Head filled with thoughts Rex had long ago put aside out of necessity. He was still holding the metal device when Fives completely diss appeared out of sight. Vanishing the same way he had appeared after nearly a decade of being gone.

The retired Captain didn't know how or what to tell Kix or Jesse when he got ship side that night. But afterwards when Leia was asleep; the entire day's events spilled out of him the way blood spilled out of a shot 'Trooper.

"He's right, you know." Jesse spoke first, always the first one to any action. "We've spent nearly three years hiding here or there. Why not connect all of those people who are helpless but want to do something? Why can't _we _help the Rebellion?"

Kix snorted, leather boots propped against the metal table. The medic was stiffly comfortable in his awkwardly slumped position. "We have Leia'ika to raise, you _utreekov. _We can't just go back to storming the enemy. Have you hit your head against a bulkhead recently?"

"I'm no fool, Kix. We were created to fight for the galaxy. And now we sit on our backsides telling stories of the good ol' days while growing soft, fat, and old." Jesse shot back. His voice was just this side of being a whispered shout, barely holding his volume down.

"Yes, I am. We have no _Jetii_ anymore, Jesse." Kix's grin was sardonic, his body slumping even more as he shrugged. "The galaxy didn't need us for their wars before, they don't need us now."

"Enough, you _di'kuts. _This isn't up for debate. We aren't going." Rex interjected before his _vod_ could escalate things and potentially wake up their charge. "If we run into people who want to help, we'll point them to the right diretion, but we have Leia. We're going to protect and raise her the way the General would have wanted to. It's what we owe him."

With that the matter was formally settled. The three may not have agreed with each other fully, but the two did see Rex's point. They _did _owe their General. They owed their General many things; their lives more times then not. The Clones had been loyal to their General. They had been loyal and faithful, and they had followed General Skywalker into the Rancor's den more times then naught, it was only right they did this for him as well.

Wasn't it?

_End Note: so I'll still be writing These short Drabbles, no worries! But this world has called me very sternly to actually expand it and write a full on book, so once Leia reaches a certain age, we're going to fully switch gears here in a bit. So keep your eyes out for that, hopefully. I love the reviews and the kudos and favorites and subscribes! It's honestly kept me from putting this whole universe away in a box, so thank you!_


	6. Din and Paz

_Oh look! New chapter on the same day! This one is very mando'a heavy, so I'll put the translations in the bottom for anyone. As usual, hit that kudos, bookmark, subscribe button! Leave a review if all possible, it's literally the only thing that helps keep me focused and writing the next chapter for you guys. This one has to be my all time favorite, though!_

**Din and Paz**

The first time Leia meets Din Djarin, the two burst into the market place hollering and kicking. Fists and feet are kicking up dirt and being thrown at each other, while the Boy and the girl grunt with effort as they try to wrestle the other. Leia may have been the smaller of the two, but she feared backwards, and sank her teeth equally hard into Din's upper arm. Din howled, face turning an interesting shade of angry red as he punched her in the eye soundly. That was of course when they ended up knocking into a taller, sturdy built boy who turned his eyes downwards.

"You losing fights to _aruetii_, now too, Din?"

The boy in question, Din, had his arm wrestled up behind his shoulder blades with Leia perched on top of him. He's just about to reply back to the other, when Leia is the one to intervene. Leia is stubborn and hardheaded the same way a Ronto behaves in a Lishen shop.

Rough and straight forward to the point of being dangerously uncouth. And absolutely devoid of any grace and poise.

"Hey! When I'm done with this _di'kut, _I'll come over there and answer your _jaro!" _Leia shouted loudly, finger pointed at the other, eyes blazing and knuckles bloody. She is a sight to behold, sitting on the skinny prone boy and staring down the taller, broader, older boy without fear and full of righteous justified anger.

Her words only seem to make the other look at her in confusion, while he stared at the two still wrestling children. Din had managed to free his trapped arm, and was trying to wiggle out from underneath, but Leia clung on the same way recklessness clung to a proper Skywalker. From there the two combatants evolved to throwing elbows and pulling hair, kicking up dust and rolling beneath shoppers' feet as they wrestled.

By the time the older boy managed to wrestle in between the two, and having to resort to picking Leia up by her waist to hold her back, the locals were beginning to stop and stare. Several largely called for parents to be tracked down, while others paused with their goods in hand, watching.

The older boy turned warm amber colored eyes towards the younger. "Din, _gar shuk meh kyrayc." _

"I'm not dead, Paz. She has a really mean _staab gaanynir."_ Din's hand swept across his mouth, smearing the blood from his lip as he sat up. His brown curls sat equally disheveled like his clothes.

Leia smiled proudly, her grin just shy of being that of a rancor's as she stared downwards. "Of course I do. _K'atini!" _She wiggles trying to wedge a sharp pointy elbow into a equally soft rib cage, trying to free herself. Paz only responded with a soft _oof_, arms tightening themselves around her.

"You speak _mando'a_." Din spat into the dirt, looking up at the two, before hosting himself upwards.

"Of course I do." The word _di'kut_ not being said vocally, but was just as implied. Leia's brown hair had come out from it's pigtails and now fell freely in front of her face. "My _bavodu'e _taught me."

"If I let you go, are you going to pick anymore _akaanir _with Din or me?" Paz questioned, jostling the girl once to gain her attention. It was starting to look like the girl was done fighting, but he had to be sure before he released the tiny hellion.

"Yeah yeah yeah. I'm done. And it wasn't fighting," Leia shrugged helplessly. "It was bonding."

"Of course it was. You enjoy fighting entirely too much, _dala'ika" _Din sighed, flopping backwards bonelessly as Paz released Leia.

"Oh I know." Leia settled her hands on her hips, eyes studying the boy in the dirt before her. Without a word, she grabbed his hand and tugged him upwards, eyes smiling in a way that spoke of great happiness and punched him once more in the shoulder. Din sighed, letting himself get tugged along seemed the route with the lesser injuries. Paz followed along behind the two.

She led them away from the center of the village, towards the old ship ruins on the edge of town. All the while leading them along a well hidden path, Leia excitedly talked about her _bavodu'e _and all the things she had learned. Like how they wore armour and taught her to fight, and how they had taught her _mando'a_ and her missing _jetii_ _ba'vodu, _who they would one day find.

_~*THE LITTLEST GENERAL*~_

The day Leia comes home from school, sporting bloody knuckles and blossoming black eye, is also the day she makes her first real best friend. A friend she won't have to leave in a few weeks when they decide to travel once more. Who doesn't see Leia as a strange forcefully strong girl who hits people entirely too much as a way to show her affection. The young girl has a large gap toothed smile, proudly dragging a skinny boy with curly brown hair roughly her age along beside her. Behind the two of them, trailed a slightly bigger and older boy.

She stormed up through the vast hallways of their ship, missing the awed hush that befalls her two 'friends'. Paz and Din had heard stories about _Kelabe _warships, but had never thought they might one day see one for themselves. The smaller one, Din is nursed equally red knuckles and a swelling bloody lip. While the older doesn't have any visible injuries, just a laughing smile on his lips and dust on his clothes.

"Jesse! Kix! Rex!" The young girl hollered loudly, her words having a strange familiar lilt to her basic the other two slightly recognized.

Who was this strange forceful female who showed her affection the same way their older _aliit_ did?

Her _bavodu'e_ were eventually found in what was now the mess hall. They all shared the same ruddy skin coloring that Din's and Paz's _aliit_ had. The three move with a steadiness that the two boys have only seen in people who have worn armour all their lives and are uncomfortable without it.

One of them is nursing a cup of caf. Another is strip cleaning a rifle with precise and quick movements that filled Paz with envy. The third one looked up from a stack of flimsies, a look Din was all but familiar with. It was the look of an exasperated parent, knowing what had happened earlier but waiting to hear their Foundling's side of things.

The one who was cleaning the rifle, set the disassembled weapon down, and introduced himself as Jesse. He quickly took in the state of Leia's unruly hair, the bruised knuckles, the torn clothing, and the dust covered face of his young charge. Jesse is prouder then puffed up mamma Numa, cowing proudly at the state of her bruised knuckles.

Kix is the next one to approach, settling his cup down and beginning to take stock of the numerous cuts decorating the young girl. He hissed sympathetically about the black eye that is framing her lovely brown eye, as he grabs a bag of frozen veg from the freezer unit. The two are all but familiar with Leia coming home after her particular 'bonding' experiences. She tended to be more dejected and mopey, this proud little girl dragging friends home is certainly new for them.

Rex is neither proud nor sympathetic in the very least. He has the look of a man who had been in charge of General Skywalker and both Shenanigans with Fives and Echo. It is a very similar look to that General Kenobi wore, more often than naught when asking if Skywalker had really gone and done that thing he told him not to do. Rex feels many things, looking across the room at a youngling who brought two others home after soundly brawling with at least one of them. One of those feelings is the very strong urge to apologize to Cody about General Kenobi looking like a man who never got any sleep. If raising Leia was _any _thing like how General Skywalker was at this age, Rex can fully sympathize with the man.

"Leia, who are your friends?" The former captain asked.

Leia; who looks more like a proud Lothcat that had caught a tooka successfully for the first time, grinned even wider. Which also managed to show off the gap toothed smile and blood coating some of her teeth. "These are my friends, _ba'vodu_. Din and Paz. We met in the marketplace."

Din smiled more shyly, hand reaching up to wave at the Clones. Leia still had one hand captured in her's. "Hi."

"You didn't fight them did you?" Rex resisted the urge to wrangle his slightly feral child out of sight and ground her. For all the good it would do them.

"Be glad, she's making friends, _vod."_ Kix's voice chided him, hands tilted leia's head this way and that as he examined the blackening bruise under the light.

"A little more roughly then a normal kid might've but ya know; it's progress." There was Jesse, agreeing with Kix.

Sometimes, Rex wondered if he was the rational one out of the four. "You two are _di'kuts. _How we haven't managed to screw her up worse, I will never know."

"Hey! Did you know; Paz and Din speak _Mando'a _too! Maybe they know more of your _vod!" _

"Oh, I'm sure that Paz and Din speak it because of other reasons, Leia'ika." Kix attempted to derail Leia before she began to ask questions that would quickly turn things uncomfortable.

"Kix is right, _ad. _Not everyone who speaks _mando'a _is like us." Jesse chimed in, having settled back to replacing his rifle back together.

"We're _Mando'ade_. Our _aliit_ live nearby." Din piped up, these strange people becoming all the more stranger. "Our _buir _likes us to be home soon, Leia. We gotta go."

Leia's face fell, before she pulled Din closer. She wrangled the skinnier boy into a hug, before reaching out and pulling Paz into one as well. "I'll see you two again, right?"

"Maybe. We have to talk to our _buir _about letting you come visit, on account of you being an _aruetii_ but meet us next to the school building around noon, yeah?"

_~*THE LITTLEST GENERAL*~_

Din looked at his older brother before glancing backwards at his new friend. He never met a girl quite like Leia. The other Foundlings tended to play tag or hide and hunt. Leia went after him the way a rancor goes after lunch. Fully focused and with a lot of muscle.

It wasn't exactly bad, Din thought on his way home to the Covert that night. Leia was a force to be reckoned with, certainly. But the punching and the kicking that was their initial meeting felt almost right. _She hadn't held back_, he grinned, gingerly touching his blackened eye. Underneath all of that rash brilliant head of hers, was something that Din felt connected to. She breathed that fight like she had simply been greeting him and it felt…._comfortable. _Leia had fought him without a grudge and didn't hold back and Din he gave that back in spades. And afterwards, the _aruetii_ girl grinned and called him her friend. She told them all sorts of things from her travels. Her words easily switched between basic and _mando'a _with a swiftness that the two brothers hadn't heard in a while.

But the stories! Leia told good stories. She told them about her blood father, who had been a General and her aunt who had fought at the Siege with her Uncles. How they had taken her in and raised her while planet hopping. Din listened with a wide-eyed eagerness he hadn't felt in years. Paz was his equally silent shadow like always, but even the older boy was enticed by the wild girl's tales.

The small boy paused outside their doorway, looking up at the stars one final time before following his brother inside and to face their parents. The stars silently shone miles and miles above his head, telling the boy all the things they held in the galaxy. They whispered secrets that Leia had decided they were trust-worthy to know off. And Din paused, thinking off the day and how wildly different it could have gone, if only he _hadn't _gotten into a fight with a small brown haired girl who had decided that punching him was as good as saying 'hello'.

**Translations:**

Aruetii- outsider

Di'kut- idiot

Jaro- death wish

Gar shuk meh kyrayc- literally; you're no use dead.

Staab gaanymir- right punch, to- basically right hook.

K'atini- suck it up OR it's only pain

Mando'a- Mandalorian language

Bavodu'e- plural for aunt/uncle.

Dala-woman. 'Ika- little. Basically little girl or woman.

Jetii-Jedi

Aliit-family

Vod-brother

Mando'ade-children of Mandalore

Buir- father/mother. Basically parent.


	7. The Armourer

**The Armourer**

It was late when Din finally got the chance to tell their _buir_ about his new friend. After the forge had been banked into a warm homey glow. _Buir_ had kept her ever watchful gaze on her boys as they spent the evening helping her do chores around the forge.

The Tribe had scattered their separate ways for the evening. Parents gathering their children up and headed in the direction each _aliit_ called home. Older siblings calling their younger ones to their sides as they were told to. The youngest were often times cuffed upside the head for taking such a long time to respond and making their parents worry, but such was the ways of their people.

The Forgemaster gathered her younglings up, just like the rest and headed past the forge to their quarters. Paz is excitedly asking her when he can finally begin his Rising Phoenix training, his head reaching her upper arm. Din is trailing behind her just slightly on her other side, the smaller boy normally this reserved. It worried the mother that her youngest was so self-reliant and didn't seek friends to play Hunters or Tag among their Tribe. But she understood it ultimately, that was just Din's way. He seemed to enjoy Paz's affection in the tussles and the rough housing.

Din was the quieter one, had been since Jarik had found him and lifted him away from the droid massacre. The day her _riduur _had walked into her forge carrying the small trembling fragile boy was one she would not soon forget. She had gained a second child that day. She _chose _Din as the child of her heart that night as she had held him in her arms. It would take them many years before Din was fully comfortable with the three of them, but it was not without its struggles. Those among their Tribe knew that rescuing Younglings in such a way had a lot of obstacles. But they were _Mando'ade. _In the aftermath of the Sieges, it wasn't just the You glints that they rescued that were hurting and in pain. They had lost much in the Siege, _verda _had fallen in countless numbers.

If it hadn't been for Bo-Katan Kryze and her leadership, countless more would have been wiped out. Kryze was a crafty leader, she would give her that single compliment. She had made sure that the previous outposts scattered throughout the Rim were stocked for emergencies, siphoning out the artisans and the younglings as the war progressed. Trying to save what could be saved of their home and their culture. It was a debt that Forgemeaster could not repay to their Leader.

It was only later, during the Siege of their home world when Kryze had demanded that the fighting Corps that were away _stay _away and to go dark. That was when those not on their home soil had found out the terrible news.

Mandalore had fallen.

Only a sole regiment of _Kyr'stad_ had survived.

_That_ was the legacy of Mandalore. A sole regiment of _verda_ that had survived the Siege. Jarik and the Forgemaster had once been part of that regiment. They had taken their wounds and hidden away from the world, tending to their own for such a while. It was later, after Paz had gained some age and height to him, that Jarik had convinced her that they needed to help other worlds. She didn't like him to leave, yet the Forgemaster knew her _riduur_ had made his mind up as it were.

So she picked up her tongs again.

She had lit a fire in an old abandoned workshop and put hammer to anvil. She had laid them down ages ago to pick up a blaster and to protect her home world. The Forgemaster had originally been trained to such skills, but hands that had grasped blasters and knives and rifles were now forced to relearn the skills that she had forgotten. Skills she had learned as a child at her _ba'buir_'s side were relearned as she sought to protect her family. She chose tools, not weapons, to protect with now. She made armour that would withstand and guard the fragile flesh underneath. Armour made from the toughest of _beskar _and forged through countless fires to be as durable as it could be.

They called her the Armourer now. Only her husband called her by her birth name. A name that held no more weight these days because those that gave it to her lay in unmarked graves ona ruined world far from where their Tribe called home these days.

In _mando'a_ literature, it is the forge that was the heart of the home.

_ Aliit_ gathered around the fires to be warm, to mend their weapons and to repair their armour. Mothers made food by the fires, crafting meals that fed their young. It is where the young gathered to be warm in the nights of blizzards as the elders would spin their tales of grander.

Those that worked the forge were special. They were the matriarchs of the families. Entrusted to create the family signet and to craft the helms that would cover their faces from the world.

She had become the Tribe's.

The glow of the forge flickered off her helm, reflecting off the golden plates as her hammer clanged against metal. Beginning to shape the metal into something new for a member of their Tribe.

**~* THE LITTLEST GENERAL *~**

It is later when _Buir_ is almost done tucking Din into bed that he finally gets to tell her. The room is nothing special. It has two beds crammed into a previous supply closet. The rooms they call home lay close by the Forge.

Paz insisted that he get his own space, but there was none to be had, so they improvised. Paz had his tiny half and Din now has his half as well. Both had a bath, washing the day's oil and gunk and dirt off their bodies. Buir _tsk-ing_ in that manner of her that said she was displeased and worried but they will talk later when their father had returned. But the day's adventures had been washed away, and new night clothes were soon gathered and put on. Boys were gathered for bed, blankets draped over slim tired out bodies as the night gathered.

_ Buir_ was used to Din's quiet nature, it was just another trait most Foundlings commonly shared. It was when her children were loud in an angry way that she began to worry. Often times it was Paz and Din at the center of the tribe's disturbance.

"I made a friend today, _Buir_!" The scraggly limbed child told her, eyes catching hers in the dim lighting.

How he was able to see through the helm and always look straight into her gaze, she would never understand.

"Ah." The woman''s work roughened hands cradled her youngest's face as she applied a healing salve."Is that how this happened then, _ad_?"

Her voice held a glimmer of reproach as her fingers pointedly grazed the yellowing and purpling skin.

"Uhuh." Din nodded, leaning forward, words beginning to come out of him in an unusual story. "Her name's Leia Skywalker. She's really something, _Buir_. I like her."

"Oh?" This was new and curious to her. Din had never before tried to interact with the other Foundlings his age. "Tell me about this Leia, Din?"

Paz, her eldest chimed in from his bed a few feet away. He lay on his side, eyes watching his _Buir_ and _vod_. "She's _aruetii_. Her uncles live out in the crashed ship outside of town."

"And you got into a fight with this _dala'ika_?" Buir glanced downwards to Din's wide proud smile.

"She speaks _Mando'a_, _buir_!"

"Do tell, _ad'ika_." _Buir_ prompted her youngest to talk. Din's eyes were lighting up in ways she had never seen. It was almost like her child was looking at her from the far side with the reflection of her forge between them.

_This_.

This was _new_, indeed.

New and curious to her in ways the Forgemaster never thought to be curious about. Yes, her children often clashed with each other like _beskar'gam _piecesglancing off each other. Such was the way life was when raising stubborn _Mando'ade verda_. Her boys were stubborn and hot headed in ways that often evolved to settling their differences with fists.

They were unyielding the same way good _beskar_ could only be tempered by the heat of the forge.

She couldn't help but be quietly proud of her boys as she was yet again forced to make them do chores, attempting just one more time to make them get along and work out their differences. It was often times, hard grilling work raising her boys. Similar to metalwork, one does not simply stop when the metal refuses to shape properly. You just had to find the right application and use the right flames to work with.

So she listened to Din as he talked about his _aruetii _friend, acting for once like a normal youngling. She was inexplicably glad that her boys met such a girl. If this was the result, then maybe it wouldn't hurt to have her come around.

"Alright, you womp rats. To bed with you!" Her hands gathered her child's face and pulled him closer as she leaned down. The soft warm child's skin bumped reassuringly against the cold metal of her crafted helm in a hard cold kiss. Din's eyes closed, hands reaching up to grasp the wrists alongside his face. Holding her there, to make sure that while he wasn't looking his mother wouldn't suddenly vanish.

"You too, Paz." She called, knowing the fuss the elder would make if she were to try to give him the same affection as his brother. Paz always insisted that because he was older, he got to be treated like he was.

_ So grown up, that one_.

It made her smile, how grown up Paz thought himself but looking at him, she was faced to realize how exactly young the boy truly was. So in response, she ruffled both boys' hair as she left the small bare bedroom. Flicking the light completely out as she went.

"_Buir_?"

"Yes, Din?" The woman stopped in the doorway. Her back facing the boys, light glinting off metal plates as she slowly faced him over her shoulder.

"Can Leia come visit the Tribe?" Din's words were laced with a sleepiness that softened her words almost instinctively as she made her reply.

"Of course she can. Leia will always be welcomed in our halls, my child." The golden helm lowered a fraction as she nodded. "Now to bed, you devil. Unless you want to do more chores for me of course?"

"No _buir_." Din's tired growl was her reply as he rolled over and finally went to sleep.

**~* THE LITTLEST GENERAL *~**

The day that Leia is introduced to the Mandalorian Tribe is the day that the Forgemaster realized how quiet things were Before. The very first thing she is introduced to when Leia comes through the door of her forge is _deja vu_.

Leia stands in a way that reminds her achingly of days before the Siege. Of when she first met a young Padawan of the _Jetii._ Of a girl who had become a sister on the battlefield and who had the same fire in her soul. It hurts in ways she thought she had healed.

The Forgemaster's second thought is that she is _small._

Din's scraggly limbed height towers over the girl, dwarfing her in ways that are both adorable and wistful. Her boy was not tall for his age, years of unnecessary neglected nourishment forcing his body to be small and wiry. But the way Leia barely reaches his shoulder is another thing.

Leia is a small compact thing with entirely too much spirit for her tiny frame. She has all of that steadfastness to her that her boys have and more. Leia burns like a sun going nova. She is flames and heat and the child expresses it in a way that forges people around her.

Din leads her through the maze of underground tunnels with a smile she has never seen. It is wholesome in its wide carefree shape. There is no reservation to her boy as he drags his friend to meet her.

"Leia, I'd like for you to be introduced to my _Buir_." Din excitedly tells her, pulling his friend closer with a hand around her wrist.

Brown brilliant amber eyes that are too wise for one so small look uncannily into her helm, meeting her eyes underneath. Her eyes are not the only thing to make the Forgemaster halt as she turns to face the children. Her smile is warm and wide and it's gentle and playful the same way a lothcat can be when being tamed. Her soul shines bright through her smile, and it is like a blazing hearth fire. She did not know whether to be afraid that this child may one day be capable of burning down the galaxy or to embrace her for her warmth.

"You must be the _aruetii_ my _ad_ have so fondly told me about." The tall woman settled her tools back in their places on the rack. "You may call me, the Armourer or Forgemaster."

Leia smiles even wider, if such a thing were even possible. "It is an honor to meet you, ma'am." Leia inclined her head seriously before popping back up to talk to her. Such was the manner of Younglings. "My aunt used to tell me stories about the great forgemasters of Mandalore."

"Did she now?" This was curious indeed. This _aruetii_ girl who knew some of their culture but had never claimed to be one of them. "And how did your _ba'vodu _know of our great masters, Leia?"

Leia's face fills with sadness, the older woman is all but familiar with. It is the same way a storm will suddenly appear out of nowhere before dumping its' burden on the land with it's soggy sorrow. "She fought in the Siege with my uncles. She's been missing ever since the Empire found us on Randon-III."

Leia struggled with her sadness, finally locking it behind shields once more before she shrugged her shoulders. "That was nearly four years ago."

"I am sorry if I brought up memories you do not find pleasant, little one. Perhaps she has joined the _Manda_, yes?"

"Rex says that if she survived she'll find us one day. If not, then maybe she's watching out for my father now. Jesse says if anyone needs watching over it's him, even if he's dead."

_Oh. _

Oh the poor thing.

**~* THE LITTLEST GENERAL *~**

The Forgemaster walked towards the children before kneeling in front of the children. Her deft hands pulled a small silver _beskar_ pendant out of a pocket, loops of black twine braided together dangling from it.

"Do you know what this means, _dala'ika?_" Seeing Leia's wide eyed gaze and nod, she continued. A smile hidden behind her helm, but not the cant of her head. "This is a symbol of _Mando'ade_. Children are given this to wear when they join our Tribe. It is now yours, Leia'_ika._"

Deft hands untangled the length of the rope, slipping the necklace over the child's head and letting it rest on the girl's chest.

"Your aunt may not come back, but you will always be welcomed here among us."

"Thank you, Armourer." Leia's Hands grasp the pendant with a reverence that speaks more than words.

"You are most welcome, Leia'_ika." _The Forgemaster hefted herself good her feet, looking down at the two younglings. "Now, why don"t you two go find Paz and explore. I have much work to complete before this day is over with."

**Author's note: **_whelp I originally didn't plan on getting too heavy with the backstory in this one but, oh well. I may have to separate out all of Din's and Leia's separate adventures into another story for you guys, but I can promise you at least several! I love the reviews and the kudos and favorites and subscribes! It's honestly kept me from putting this whole universe away in a box, so thank you_

**Translations:**

Aruetii- outsider

Di'kut- idiot

Jaro- death wish

Gar shuk meh kyrayc- literally; you're no use dead.

Staab gaanymir- right punch, to- basically right hook.

K'atini- suck it up OR it's only pain

Mando'a- Mandalorian language

Bavodu'e- plural for aunt/uncle.

Dala-woman. 'Ika- little. Basically little girl or woman.

Jetii-Jedi

Aliit-family

Vod-brother

Mando'ade-children of Mandalore

Buir- father/mother. Basically parent

Beskar'gam; Mandalorian armour that they wear.

Riduur; spouse, husband or wife, partner.

Verda; plural for soldiers

Kyr'tsad; Death Watch.


	8. Intermission

**If you get there before I do**

_Far across the river _

_Can you hear freedom calling? _

_-Stand Up (Harriet) _

_A/N; in order to move forward, i have to move backwards snd fill in some history._

The two originally met on a Slaver's Frigate. It begins as nothing more than him laying on a dingy mat next to her. The woman's belly was round. Round with a child yet to be borne, a doomed hope in those dark days. They do not talk about the man that was not there, the father of her child. Instead, they whisper back and forth to each other of what is coming. Of the child that she carries and what their name will be. At night, he would hold her, arms protectively wrapped around her stomach. Soon enough, the comforts of two slaves turned to something more. Something deeper between them and they evolved to something together. They had become a family on this frigate of doom. Eking out hope in slivers that they could only find because they hadn't given up hope in those days. _(His name was Jango and he was a Mandalorian.) _

He doesn't know why he did it in those first days, only that he did. He protected her. And she kept whatever sparse rations they manage to squirrel away from the other hungry slaves. Soon enough looking back, he thought he might have once loved her in those days. Might have had a future in a world where they were not slaves destined to be ripped apart by separate masters.

But soon enough the ship stopped at the next dock. Twenty strong men are taken off, sold as labor for the spice mines. He was one of them. And she thought she would never see him again. She knew what the spice mines meant- it was hard labor, deadly for those that worked the mine shafts. The slaves sold there weren't expected to survive for months. It was a short death, but it was not an easy one. He was sold to new masters and she found that she missed everything about him. His warmth, his strong sturdy chest and arms that gently held her at night. She missed all of those things. But more often than not, she just missed him _(His name was Jango and he was a Mandalorian.) _and she forgot.

***|~ Alorir'ika~|***

In the days after her son's birth, she would gaze at the babe held in her arms and wish for him to see what she saw. She longed for him to see her boy's blue eyes and be able to look at him with calmness as he held the child. She longed for things she should not desire for as she whispered forgotten words to the crying child. She would tell him tales of the man, stories that had been whispered between two people in forgotten nights as he held her and her child that she had carried.

It is later, they were sold to Gardulla the Hutt and taken to Tatooine as slaves. She and her boy. She had stopped whispering words of the man, turning her hands and her mind to survival on this hot desolate hell of a planet. Those things had once been savored now lay forgotten and untouched. Buried under years of neglect and layers of sand.

As her hands twisted wires and moved parts in the vaporator, Shmi told herself to forget. So she did. She forgot all that didn't help them survive the heat of the planet and the cruelty of their master. ( _His name was Jango and he had been a mandalorian _.)

Eventually Gardulla's household leaked like a broken sieve, losing credits faster than they earned. The hutt eventually sold Shmi and her son to Jabba in order to pay off gambling debts that did not stop. Years went by and Shmi kept working. She forgot what it means to be free, locking those memories and dreams away in order for her and her boy's survival.

Anakin does not. He doesn't quite flourish like a desert plant, but he does not wither in the dry climate either. Instead, the young boy turns his face to the stars at night and listens to the Old Mother's songs. He soaked up the words and their meanings and he _dreams. _He dreams of pilots and ships and men who come to free them. He dreams of returning back to Tatooine and freeing the slaves. Shmi began to sing the songs she picked up from the Old Mother at night, letting her heart be just a little lighter when she looked at her son. Anakin dreams of following the River to freedom. Every night without fail, he finds the River that lay above them and dreams of the paradise that awaits on the other side. He tells her off all the things that will happen, and Shmi does not have the heart to stop him. So as her boy's eyes trace currents unseen, Shmi polishes and cleans, wrapping wires and stripping parts.

Shmi does not know how to hope for those things, she knows how to survive but her boy has never dreamed wrong before. And he always says _when I come back _so she does what she can. She protects her Ani until the men come and take him away. She watches as he builds things with his hands and whispers tales of things that have not yet happened.

***|~ Alorir'ika~|***

It is after, when her boy is no longer on Tatooine that brings her memories back. A hunter in metal armour comes from Jabba's court. He's deadly and a focused dangerous predator that stalked the halls. He brought with him a bounty that he threw in front of Jabba with a ruthlessness in him that Shmi has never seen before. She did not know it at the time, but the Hunter had spotted her and recognized her for who she is. The hunter had decided to let Jabba have his payment in return for a slave mechanic.

Jabba refuses to sell her, until one day he doesn't. So Shmi is given to the Hunter in return for his caught bounty. It is later, after he has convinced Jabba that he wouldn't take his credits but in fact a mechanic for his ship that he actually talks to her.

His ship doesn't need much, only a few calibrations. It would hardly take her a few hours to complete. But that is not the full reason he had whisked her from Jabba. He was a mandalorian and in the dead of the night on a slaver's ship, he had silently made a promise. A promise to that kind beautiful woman that he had known and memorized. A promise to an unborn child that he will do his best to protect the two of them.

The Hunter reached up and took off his helmet, revealing kind liquid eyes that Shmi had forgotten. ( _His name was Jango and he was a mandalorian). _

"Jango?"

The woman whispered the name with all the reverence one holds for water on this planet. Shmi remembers as she throws herself into his hard metal covered chest. He asks her what happened to her child.

"He's gone."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to~" he never quite finished what he was trying to convey.

"No, Jango. He's not dead. The Jedi came and took him." Shmi shook her head, scarred palm reaching up for his face.

They talk then. Of things that had happened to each other. And Jango pulls out a blocky illegal device that he promises won't hurt, but it may burn. Instead the man who had been in bondage with her, who loved her all those years ago and hadn't forgotten Shmi Skywalker- freed her from her life as a slave.

"Where- what do I do now?" Shmi asked him, sliding the shoulder of her tunic upwards once more. Her hands are anxious in her lap, twining around each other, looking for something to fix and steady themselves on.

"Whatever you please, Shmi. I won't be your slave-master. I can take you anywhere you please." A warm sturdy hand grasps her shoulder, feeling the wiry muscle underneath. "Plenty of people will pay you a decent wage for being a skilled mechanic." Jango has carried her kindness and her soft words inside of him since they met. He carried them close to his heart in the days where death would have been a blessing. Through years of hardship and torture. It would only be fitting to somehow repay her for those things, if he was able.

Shmi asks him how the device worked. And he told her, placing the square squat body in her hands with a warning.

"You'll be put to death if you're caught, Shmi."

"I know." She turned her warm brown eyes upwards, smiling in the face of his concern. "But there are worse things than death, remember Jango."

It is after curfew, in the dark of the night when Shmi returns to the slave quarters. It is later in the dark of the night when Shmi takes the small device to the Slave quarters.

She leaves the black square object with Busa, the eldest of the Slaves. Busa smiled, hands wrapping around the device, her eyes glowed as she looked at the younger. Busa is happy for them, a happiness that is tempered with her wisdom and age. Her words hold a deeper meaning as she told them before Shmi left. "I'll meet you in the morning. Farewell, oh farewell."

When it is over and Jango follows her back to the ship, he is quietly thoughtful beside the small wiry woman.

Closing up the hatch, Shmi looks at this man who she had loved for years. When he asks her, "What now?"

She replies with a small grin that lights up the old ship hull. 'Now we go find the river and lead others there."

Jango and Shmi leave Tatooine, but it is not forever. Both of them know the cruelty of their slave masters. As they follow the River into the night, the two plan. They plan and refine and plan some more. And slowly but surely they eventually lead others to the River. They lead more and more of their people, taking them to a brand new home.

A home that eventually has a small carbon copy of Jango. A boy who begins to understand that the _Jetii _who had taken his older brother away were a different type of chains. A boy who would wear the face of a thousand soldiers in a new war that was coming.

They miss the return of Shmi's son to Tatooine.


	9. Cody

"Rex. . To. Kill. Me"

Those were the words out Leia's mouth. Not whether or not Din and Paz were okay. Not if there was any more danger that could possibly happen. Only the sheer important fact that Rex was going to inflict filicide. Leia's tone was that matter of fact, seeing the impending doom about to happen. The kind one knows is coming, it is inescapable and once should simply accept that.

"Ya sound so sure of that, Aruetii." Paz huffed, stomping his feet experimentally.

"She's a pessimist, vod." Din commented, still half laying in the dirt.

"No no you don't understand. Rex is going to kill me!" Leia gestured wildly. Arms outgrown to encompass the sheer size of the disaster. "It's not pessimistic if it's true!"

Din tilted his head to the right. In his own way looking at her and questioning Leia's sanity the only way he knew how.

Silently.

"It's a ship." Paz commented gruffly, right hand adjusting the gauntlet on his left. "Aren't you like the best mechanic in the sector?"

"The outer rim. I'm the best mechanic on the outer rim." Leia huffed, body sagging in resignation. "But even I can't fix this." She gestured at the debris field that lay along the eve of the canyon wall.

Din gestured his hands, telling her she was an di'kut.

"Oh shut up, Djarin." The sole female huffed back, hands searching her pockets for a comm unit. "It's not like your buir isn't gonna kill you two either."

"Ja'ar told us to take an easy bounty." Paz tapped the back of his fist to Din's pauldron. "Get up."

"That still doesn't solve your problem." Leia huffed, coughing at the dust that rolled upwards as she sat in the sandy dirt.

The planet the three found themselves on was a small forgotten dustball with little to no influence of any kind that wasn't smuggler, hunter, or sentient beings trying to stay off the radar. There was only a single imperial garrison, one too small to do anything about the influx of criminals.

"Come on then. We can still do our job." Paz nudged his boot into Din's side, as he headed in the direction of the last town.

"How?!" Leia called after the two. "I think I saw half an engine four clicks to the south. You can't even get your bounty to the right people!"

"There's still local jobs to be done and we might be able to get a new ship. Coming Aruetii?"

***|~ Alorir'ika~|***

Cody liked his job dammit.

It was nice and quiet, slow in a way that he really never experienced. He didn't have to coordinate thousands of troop movements and fleet movements and make sure that the fleet general was taking care of himself. He didn't have to deal with out of control generals on the front lines and their troops. He didn't have to barter and trade troops with Coursant's homeguards. Fighting with brothers over who got what company and leave and equipment requests.

Cody didn't have to do any of those things. And he liked that.

He liked his routines and being able to start the day at 0300 with the weekly inspection and then the morning drills. Then a few hours managing the paperwork and the requisition forms and supplies. A break for lunch and another walk through to make sure that nothing had happened, checking on the troops again, before heading back to the desk to finish more paperwork. And finally shut down and leave at 2500 for the night.

Anyone else would have been bored out of their mind, aching to go do a patrol or be stationed somewhere else. Somewhere with action and firefights and adventure.

Cody did not mind.

Not after Umbara.

There were a lot of things Cody didn't mind doing now. Things he told himself to be happy in as he focused on his mundane drag.

Where once the Clones had numbered in the billions as they were the only ones in the GAR, now it was hard to find even one or two. Clones that survived and served during those last few hours of the Republic were shuttled off, picked over in favor of natborn troops. Men with less capable training and experience; who ended up being used as cannon fodder. Cody couldn't bear to watch as he lost more and more brothers as the years had gone by.

So when the Supreme Commander had sent Cody and a few dozen loyal troops to an old abandoned outpost, the former Marshal Commander went. It was everything that Cody needed and craved (needed to be away the same way someone needed to breathe) in those days. It was as far from a hot zone as he could get without deserting his post.

But today would not be another boring day.

If anything, it was to be a catalyst to Cody's life. A revolution of his ideals, converging and forming and shifting until finally there was nothing more but a complete and total transformation by the end.

***|~ Alorir'ika~|***

As Cody walked through the bullpen in the front of the building right after the midday meal, he was subject to a pair of men haul a small tiny teenager through the front door. Something about her made the clone pause.

There was nothing about her that Cody knew he had seen before. She wasn't one of the locals, nor had she been to the Garrison before. But something made him stop and observe the skinny thing.

She was fighting like a wet nexu kit, snarling pointedly as she attempted to yank herself backwards through the doors. Brown hair lay in an utter disarray, caked in mud and other foul things. Her clothes weren't in much better condition.

"Get your karking gaans off me!" She screeched, eyes wild and defiant. "Brokar gar shebse akay haili cetaure!"

Cody paused in the shadowed entrance of the inner hallway and thought about turning around and keep going.

Maybe his office would be a strategically sound spot until this whole thing was over? Then again, Cody eyed the skinny womp-rat dripping in the middle of his lobby, it would be the first place the men would look for him.

Before Cody could even make his choice, one of his officers caught sight of him. "Sir!"

Oh the former Marshall wished that second-lieutenant Barses wasn't quite so good at her job. Normally, he quite enjoyed the Second-Lieutenant and her ability to catch even the slightest change and minute details, but not today. Cody did not want to have to deal with that spiny wrestling nexu in his bullpen at all cost. If it had been anyone else, Cody knew he could have slipped away, but contrary to popular belief, Barses was not the one incharge of the day-to-day going-ons in the bullpen, Cody just didn't care enough to enforce every little rule around the garrison.

"What do you have, 2Lt?" He asked, skirting the still happening snarling match in the middle of the floor.

"Just the usual for the most part, until we found this one" Barses nodded her chin at the fiasco. She looked down at the data pad in her hand. "The report included unsanctioned prevalence and usage of military grade jetpacks, six cases of property damage, two cases being the cause and in the middle of vehicular collisions, four cases of unlawful trespassing, one case of underage drinking and possible illegal smoking, being of underage unsaid commercial property where she was seen actively consuming said illegal drinks."

In the background the tiny girl managed to slip an arm free, wedged her knee upwards until she was capable of kicking the troop that had let go of her in the sternum and flung herself backwards, flipping the one still holding onto her.

Barses grabbed an input terminal and dryly added as she typed. "And finally two cases of assault on Imperial military personnel. "What should we do with her, Commander?"

Sometimes Cody really wished that things would just stay quiet. He liked the quiet After. Today was definitely one of those days. The commander looked at Barses (oh how she reminded him of one of his brothers with being able to handle 90 things simultaneously. The woman was long overdue for a promotion, but oh how he dreaded to lose her skills in the eventual transfer.) and tried to block the noise of several men trying to wrangle cuffs on the prickly little nexu.

Except….

Cody happened to glance up just at the moment when the skinny little thing managed to flip herself between two men, dodged a third, slipped a wrist free of a fourth in a twirly spin-flip that would have for sure dislocated at the very least a shoulder and threw an excellent (if he had to judge) uppercut to a fifth.

The whole time, in the back of his mind, Cody recognized that she had perfect footwork and form. The kind that was highly specialized with the ARC troopers and their training.

Oh, Kriffin' hell if the Shebse who raised her wasn't hot on her tail.

"Put her in a cell and let her cool her heels for the night." Cody fought the impulse to rub that knot of tension that used to form when he had to deal with his karking nerd of a brother and his out of control everything.

"Hopefully a guardian will be around to pick her up and deal with her then, 2LT."

"Yessir." Barses drolly told him, tapping away. "Will that be all sir, or is there anything else?"

Cody eyed the small meek looking woman, knowing that underneath the layers of prim and proper imperial training, he was being severally sassed.

"Yes that will-" Cody happened to glance up at the girl just as she was yanked through the hallway. "Get her a change of clothes as well, Barses. I'm not sure if we have anything her size but try to aim for close to it."

"Right away sir." Barses continued to tap, fielding the endless calls and messages and other logistical duties effortlessly in a way that Cody knew he would have nightmares about if she wasn't around to handle them.

**Translations  
**Aruetii: outsider

Gaans; hands  
Brokar; to beat  
Gar; your  
Shebse: asses  
Akay; until  
Haili cetaure; you enjoy it

Aka; I'll beat you until you enjoy it


	10. The breakout

**10 The breakout**

Leia woke up to the world shaking apart around her. She fell from her curled spot on the hard cot, sacking an elbow on the short way down to the ground.

"Harchaak!" She spat, leveling her small frame up in an instant.

The clothes the Imperials had given her wasn't small enough, being only a size or 3 bigger in the shoulders then her slight frame. The pants were also a couple inches too long for her, having come from second lieutenant Barses.

"You ready to get out of here, Aruetii ?" Din asked, tossed her a heavy WESTAR-35 blaster as the door opened sluggishly.

"Where's my DC-17 ?" The girl asked, snatching the gun and moving to take the lead through the hallway.

"Didn't have time." Paz called out, his strong hefty frame appeared around the corner. He had a rifle slung over his shoulder, and a couple new scuffs on his blue armour. "Let's go."

StormTroopers were beginning to pour in from all directions. Most of them didn't have their full Blacks on, having woken up with the Di'kuts' entrance. Leia icily noted that less than an eighth even had proper stance as they took position.

"Five." Din snarled happily, pointedly using his other '35 and taking down several stormies with a single shot each.

Leia could hear the joy in his voice, his body strung tight as he spun easily behind a pillar as they dodged.

"And how exactly do you plan to get out of here, Di'kut ?" Leia snarked, popping out of the corner to fire some shots. "If you haven't noticed, we're surrounded!"

The three were being steadily pushed through the maze of hallways, having to dodge and crouch as they moved in the opposite direction of the entrance.

"Three more, vod!" Din cackled, flying across the hallway to land behind another pillar. Paz growled silently, picked off a stormie and yanked Leia backwards into the corner. The elder got a brilliant stink eye for his trouble.

"Twenty seven." Paz yelled out, giving Din a rude gesture.

Din lobbed a grenade into the cluster of Stormies, tilted his head and stated proudly. "That's two twenty and five to your twenty seven, vod."

"Grenades do not count!" Paz snarled, bolstering his blaster pistols and slung the rifle off his back in one easy motion. They were nearing the end of the hallway and Leia happened to know that there were no staircases in that direction.

"They do though!" Din would have been bouncing like a jumpscare if he wouldn't have gotten shot at. "Buir said damage counts as damage!"

Leia snarled, squeezing the trigger on her '35 as fast as she could. The weight of the blaster and the sticky trigger was throwing her aim off just enough that her shots weren't quite effective as they could have been. Jesse would have been disappointed in her, Leia thought as she tried to compensate. "You both are di'kuts ! How are we getting out of here!?"

"If you'd shut up, you'd notice that we're going up." Paz growled, leveled a Verpine shatter rifle at an upcoming window and fired. He kept turning, his finger pulling and slipped back into another hollow corner. "Twenty and ten, Djarin."

"There's no stairs that way!" She screeched, tagging several more stormies in the weak spots of their armour.

Two fingers lifted off the stock and counted down, Paz silently communicated with his vod with the tilt of his head. Din grabbed her around the wrist at Paz's command. Both of them sprung into motion and darted across the open hallway, dodging incoming fire and crashed through the window at full speed. Din put his pistol away, free hand pressing something on his opposite gauntlet. Leia knew he was giving off that shit eating grin he always had right before he leapt. She had seen it enough times to read it in every line of his body as they moved.

Paz fired off several more shots with the Verpine , before he too was in motion. Longer legs easily overtook the other pair and soon enough Paz was leading them within a few motions.

"You Di'kuts! We're on the fifth floooooo-aaaaaaaah!" Leia shrieked out in alarm and surprise, being hauled through the broken window right alongside Din. Her eyes widened in surprise and fear as Din snorted, grabbed her around the waist and jumped.

Paz was slightly in the front and took the brunt of the shards shattering. Leia screeched in alarm and surprise as they fell downwards. Her eyes widened, her hand gripped the clunky blaster, twisting around to hold onto Din. Her free hand wove and twisted in between the flak vest and his armour, her legs wrapped themselves around his waist and she kept screaming.

Before the three could even hit the ground, their bodies yanked upwards with force.

"Jetpacks! _Oya_ ! You were actually smart for once!" Leia hollered, scrambling to hold onto her ride. Her eyes slowly opened in delight before she was once again focused on the troopers firing at them from the ground and the window.

"Would you stop moving!?" Din exasperated at her, struggling to keep hold of Leia and not fall out of the sky at her shifting weight.

*|~ Alorir'ika~|*

Cody was going to have a nightmare. There were no other words to explain the sheer destruction of that small teenager. It all but confirmed his theory that she was most definitely Torrent. No one else would have the beskar balls to shoot up the garrison on their way out and break through a fifth story window and then jump out of it. He looked at his men scattered throughout and had to sigh mentally.

None of them were even kitted out properly. If this had been a scramble exercise, the whole garrison would have been running laps fully kitted until they dropped.

He feels no shame for what he is about to do next. None at all. Even his Shebse vode would have done it, he told himself in hindsight.

Cody discreetly tapped his left bracer twice, whispered under his breath, " _Kot."_

Except for Barses. Cody eyed his 2IC, noting her proper appearance. Not a hair was out of place, her gun was fully holstered and her seams were all exact and in place. Even her boots were highly polished.

"Orders sir?" She asked. Oh how he loved that woman and her ability to be on top of everything at any given moment!

"Shoot them down if possible." Cody drily said, his DE-10 slipped easily into place on his hip. "If not, track their course and get me a squad to give chase." Cody glanced at the contingent of storm troopers behind Barses.

He couldn't help the grimace on his face. Stormies just didn't have the quality of Troopers. How he missed working with men who had excellence bred into their very bones.

"Of course sir."

*|~ Alorir'ika~|*

Cody knew that she was Rex'ika's. There was no possible way that the skinny womp rat wasn't, not with her screaming oritsir throughout half the time she was in his garrison. But this. This just proved it. The Jetpacks the three Shebse verd'ikas used may have been military grade, but they were still not quite Torrent Company grade. Something that was a small blessing in and of itself. That gave the commander ample time to track them down to a small forgotten dingy space dock and an equally beaten up falling apart freighter.

Knowing how one's karking nerd of a vod thought was also a point in his favor , Cody mussed.

The girl hadn't even bothered to be on the ship as Cody strode into the hanger. She was yards away, rooted in her tracks while her companion made it to safety.

"Lei'ka!"

The girl froze like a moormouse, her body straightened up proudly. Her eyes, brown like well made caf with the just right amount of sweetener in it, found his unexpectedly. Like she knew where to look to pinpoint them underneath the helmet. It was a silent contest of wills as she holstered her pistol. Like she was daring him to shoot her.

"Come on Lei'ka!" A young male voice yelled, feet pounded up the ramp at the sight of white armour appearing.

The girl, no… Her name was Lei'ka, and didn't move, arms by her side in a perfect parade rest. Her eyes moved, watching the stormtroopers file in the hanger and fan out around her in a half circle. On her lips a silent twist, knowing a joke that Cody was not a part of.

"Halt!" Cody called aiming his blaster at the figure. Behind her the ship's engines fired up, warmed enough to begin lift off.

And yet she still did not move.

Cody didn't know whether he should have pity for his vod'ika for being stuck raising such a stubborn shebse or laugh in joy. The ade had way too much _kar'ta_ and not enough _mirshe_ .

It was a silent dare of wills, one Cody could not tell the end off. Finally before the ramp was higher than ten feet off the ground, she vaulted into motion, ran across the hanger ground and leapt.

Somehow, impossibly she caught the very edge of the metal, hauling herself upwards with the sheer force of her arms and moved upwards to safety. Before she completely vanished into safety, the girl paused and looked over her shoulder. One hand held a ramp piston and her eyes cataloged the incoming troops.

*|~ Alorir'ika~|*

Leia spun around, held the ramp piston and watched the incoming troops. Her free hand flipped upwards to frame her face. Two fingers: wrist tilted just so the way Jesse taught her to so it wasn't a _sir yes sir_ but and gave the most shit eating grin she managed to give as she caught the commander's visor.

It was a perfect data pad example of a _Kark you_ salute.

*|~ Alorir'ika~|*

Barses showed up right at Cody's shoulder, where she always was right before Cody needed her. "Orders sir?"

"Let them go, 2LT." Cody drily said, body easing out of battle ready. "If anyone has the guts to do what that kid had done and gotten away with it, I think they earned the right to make it off planet, don't you?"

"Of course sir." Barses reply was textbook perfect as always, but Cody knew that she was silently questioning him. Maybe if he got her a plaque for her desk, she might have been appeased. "Exactly how are the AA reports going to read for this sir?"

No, he definitely was getting her a mug to go with that plaque. Maybe something that said 'Barses; Essential Imperial Security Resource' ?

"There won't be a report in the official files, Barses. Just the one to the General." Cody resisted the urge to rub the back of his neck at her look.

"Of course sir. And may I ask permission to ask why, sir?"

Oh yeah, he was gonna get her a shiny brass one, maybe add some shivs to her desk for this.

"Kid belongs to the Captain." Cody responded, silently wincing.

"Of course she is. And wouldn't that information have been of better use if I had known that earlier, sir?"

No, no… Cody was definitely making that plaque beskar and getting her her favorite caf for the next month?

"Maybe, didn't really know that until now, 2IC."

"Of course not sir." Barses spun on her heel after performing a perfect _sir yes sir_ salute that he knew was hiding a hidden sass in it and headed back for the garrison.

_Two months?_

He was gonna get her enough caf for _two months_ at the very least .

Cody was left to watch the exhaust of the freighter in the sky. Now he just had to tell the General that they finally found evidence of Rex'ikas activity and being alive. Ooh Kriff that report won't be an easy one .

Cody turned away, headed back to his destroyed garrison and his After Action reports and drafts to make sure his men were going to be adaptable to new training. If a single teenage wet nexu kit had done that to his garrison, his men needed some severe training changed around base.

_Aruetii: outsider  
Di'kuts: idiots. Also what Leia collectively calls the boys.  
Oya!: hoorah! Positive and triumphant  
Kot: prayer circle.  
Shebse vode: asshole brothers  
Oritsir: curse/bellow  
Verd'ikas: little soldiers.  
Vod'ika: little brother  
Shebse: ass  
Ade: child  
Kar'ta: heart  
Mirshe: brain_


	11. Appo

CC-119 had once been a sergeant and a damned good one. He kept his head down, followed orders and looked after his squad. He made sure his men were kept alive and that they did the same as him. He never questioned commanding officers or their orders, maybe sometimes he should have. If had, would the mess the galaxy was spinning towards not be happening?

Throughout his whole career, CC-1119 stood faithfully awaiting orders.

He was a good soldier. And good soldiers followed orders.

But faithful and loyal as CC-1119 was, even a clone was capable of missing small negligible unimportant details. Things slipped through the cracks and was lost in the vast amounts of paperwork that an imperialist army ran on. Occurrences that were easily explained and dismissed would happen on the regular, making CC-1119 twitch but always he dismissed it. Odd rearranging of troops, patrols canceled or rerouted through sections of sectors that weren't even viable or in danger of insurgents. Troop movements that should not be happening; they didn't make sense, but were! Squads shuffled through and then lost or long ago decommissioned, paperwork backdated to years prior so that they no longer were suspicious. Fleet movements that didn't make sense. Officers pulling their best men out of the field for inefficient reasons and letting insurgents take over whole sectors of space.

It made 1119 irritated and be on edge. These things were not of a normal operating army. Even one as badly run as this one. He was sure of that.

Throughout the last decade, clones went from being the sole form of troops to being decommissioned and used for canon fodder. Their kind once scattered the stars, numbers once in the trillions.

These days; a single squad would be lucky to still be whole. Clones were being shuffled through paperwork, lost in the gears of time and the ever constant movement of the Empire's war machine. No one seemed to care.

Except for Darth Vader.

He moved what clones he could find to his fleet and operations. Enlisted, natborn Stormies were quickly being replaced and taken over by experienced Clone Troopers.

1119 didn't really have much to think about such things. He shouldn't be bothered with such meaningless details, it he was. He noticed details and patterns and when things were just off enough to cause him to twitch, he did. But 1119 was a First Lieutenant now. He was doing all the duties of the missing Captain and it left him with little time to ponder what exactly His superior was doing. He had companies to look out for instead of just five men now.

The 501st may be elite, commonly called Vader's Fist, but that still didn't mean that it wasn't 1119's job to protect his men. Little as it was at times.

Maybe 1119 couldn't protect them to the extent that their General or Captain had at one point, but He could do it in other subtle ways.

1119 could keep his eyes and ears open to reports and movements. Listening to scuttle butt on the ship as men talked. No one paid attention to clones after all. He could and would keep abreast of the way the galaxy was falling apart around them. And if at the end, there were no other options? He would make sure his men at the very least got out. They were good men, dependable and faithful, loyal and true and brave.

1119 was a good First Lieutenant and that was what his job meant at the end of the day.

"You" Darth Vader ordered, pointed at him. His voice was deep and dark and everything that 1119 feared.

1119 snapped to attention, his body straightened up like a rod had been inserted into his body instead of a flesh and bone spine. A perfect parade salute had formed and was held within seconds of the snapped command. It took the Lieutenant a few precious seconds of confusion hidden by his bucket to figure out that he should be following the dark lord.

The shock rolling off him is just as unexpected and an unpleasant thing. Normally it is General Veers or Admiral Piet who sends the orders to the Second Lieutenant for the Battalions. It them who contacts the clone for new troopers that are needed for various detachment details.

Not Darth Vader personally.

"Yes sir." 1119 slips effortlessly into the Darth's wake. Two steps back and a step to the side of Darth Vader's right shoulder. A textbook escort position.

They're not headed for the hangers or Ops or even the barracks. Unusual, 1119 expected those destinations.

His step did not however falter in the least. 1119 is nothing more than a good soldier. And good soldiers follow orders. No matter how much those orders are likely to get him or his men killed.

Vader keyed a pad on a door, a door 1119 knows with a growing trepidation is not the turbo for Command decks either.

Had Vader finally decided that he had no more use for 1119 and was about to simply do away with the clone? Had the clone displeased his lordship in some way? Vader's shifting moods were legendary in the fleet, and always ended with some poor helpless officer strangled to death. They were turbulent and sudden, harsh as a Kaminoan thunderstorm and as sudden as a mudslide on Felucia. Sometime the simple foot soldiers, 'Stormies and Troopers alike, were caught in the eye of that storm and their lives snuffed suddenly. An unfortunate occurrence but unavoidable if they ended up in the line of fire as well. Everyone knew that.

Oftentimes those who died were purely casualties of a spur of a moment action. Undesirable as that and as often as it happened.

Vader keyed the door open, stepped inside silent except for the hiss of the door's mechanisms.

1119 hesitated, maybe he was expected to stand guard? A posted guard for a meeting that Vader didn't want interrupted or-

"Come." Vader ordered, curtly.

"Yes sir. Sorry sir." 1119 was quick to respond. Just like always. Stepped inside the door and watched it slide back into place. If something were to happen to him, 1119 only hoped that a majority of his troopers would make it out alive in the end.

It didn't matter now, he thought, watched as Vader's fingers flicked and set the lock on the door into place. Did it matter once before? His mind seemed to whisper to him.

1119 briefly wondered how exactly he was about to die. Rumor was that the Lord could and would choke a person without touching them. Others said that the blood colored blade was used just as often. Cut to pieces or strangled? 1119 could clearly see the plasteel windows behind the black shroud in front of him. Perphaps, the Commanding Lord would just save those things for another poor soul and it'd be a spacing for him. That sounded like an even more unpleasant way to die. 1119 wondered if there was even a possible chance of him being spaced, even.

"Remove your helm, Second Lieutenant ."

Immediately, the white plastoid Stormtrooper helmet was removed and tucked into a curved arm. All in a single smooth motion.

"Sir?" He curiously asked, as he looked at the looming figure. No other officer ever bothered to order such a thing. Why should they? 1119 was just a clone. He had the same face as a billion others, once a time. Now he was a mark of an antique war that never quite finished.

Vader advanced, hand reaching upwards. 1119 froze, locked his limbs into place and tried not to bolt for the locked door. A hand reached for a blaster on his hip, fingers spasmodic as he held himself in place.

A good soldier followed orders.

"Easy, Lieutenant. I am merely fixing something." Vader told him. The words were quietly uttered but it was more impactful that if they had been shouted in an active field.

"Sorry sir." The words quick and precise. 1119 never really had to think of a different response.

Vader advanced and reached up-

It took all of 1119's full skills as a trained experienced soldier to not flinch. His eyes shifted towards where Vader's gloved hand was curled around the side of his head. Cradling his face in a way that was unusual. Vader's fearsome visage gave away nothing, revealed not a single thing in the lines of his body or how he held his weight. It is to that sight that causes 1119 to lock his knees as his breath hitches in his chest.

The room is quiet. Too quiet as hidden eyes stare into 1119's for a long moment, examining or looking for something before a nod is given.

Something broke free.

Something deep within his mind. Hidden deep and forgotten until now. Until Vader knew what to grab and yank away. Freeing chains that 1119 never knew he had.

A strangled half agonized cry slips between numb lips as his legs give out and he collapses downwards. Knees and the forgotten helmet tumble and crash onto the floor as stabbing pain flares outwards. Everything is red and monochromatic and Appo lets it flair outwards. Unfurling into colors and pain and tears streaming silently down his cheeks. His body does not stand tall, instead it folded like a puppet strings no longer attached.

Appo does not kneel at Vader's feet for long. Possibly only for a few precious scant seconds. That's all he'll give himself before he's scrambling into fluid motion. Limbs jerking and simply reacting at this point while his brain scrambles to understand what could be... what was actually blown open to stare at Vader. His heart and ribs thud against each other they are both trying to win a bare fisted knuckle fight.

Everything comes back at once.

All his brothers that died in years of war. Brothers lost and named forgotten. Slave chips that sat in their Kriffin heads that no one bothered to tell them about. They were no better then then meet droids. Fighting Clankers and insurgents... for what?! They TOOK his name from him! The one thing they could not take- their minds and their names. And and Vader had..., what HAD Vader done?!

The blaster was in his hand the next moment, and Appo is firing as he comes back to his feet. The snap-hiss of a red lightsaber sends him ducking behind minimumly slim cover of a long briefing table as muscle memory takes over. He doesn't wait to see where the bolts end up, but the constant hum of the weapon winds his already fraying nerves tighter. This was a Sith. A force damned Sith. Appo had lost countless brothers to this foul Hutt forgotten creature!

It…. it is everything the Jedi were fighting. Everything Appo and his brothers were fighting and protecting against.

Vader is… is a Sith. Appo may have been a sergeant, nothing special during those last few days but he was made for the Jedi. Just like all his brothers. Made for them, and he- he helped hunt... no. He helped KILL Jetii and lead troops... his men and brothers... his... and and~

Appo climbed to his feet. Posture tight, not loose as he had been trained to do. Shoulders back, head level. Eyes on the target. Muscles locked, held steady but his hand that pointed the blaster shook as he took aim.

One.

Two.

Six shots squeezed off without thought, even as his reflexes screamed at him to move (get away. Do something! Don't just stand there, you shiny!).

Vader yanked the blaster free, crushing it with the force as the red blade distinguished once more. "Your reflexes are still impressive, Lieutenant." Vader took a step backwards. Hooked his saber onto his utility belt. "Very good. I may still have use of you yet."

Hands reached upwards and clamped around the soulless visor of a death head before they lifted it away.

***|~ Alorir'ika~|***

"That's it. I'm going after them." The voice is steady and full of emotion. Rex slammed the stein of really good homemade brew onto the table. None of the others in the Covert bothered to look up. They had all watched as the former captain got more and more restless without any notice of Leia's checking in.

"Hmmm. Do you think that is an appropriate idea, vod?" The steady presence of the Armourer asked, tilting her head as she looked at the aged clone. "This is her first hunt, do not undermine that."

"She's good, I'll grant her that." Rex shoved his hand over his face, dragging it across tired eyes. "But it's been nearly two ten days since she's reported back. Shouldn't we have heard something by now?"

The Armourer nodded, stepping closer. "Vod, I understand that you are worried and concerned for your ad. But she is a warrior that you have trained. You have done as any buir would have and made sure that she will and can be capable of handling anything that may happen to her. That is the way of all parents. The difficult part is understanding that there is no more training and drills you can force into her thick head. You have trained the ad well. Now we must wait for her to return yaim from the oya'karir."


	12. Luke

Luke

"I got eyes on the targets." A young voice rang out in the silence. It's owner was a small whipcord thin man, no he was more of a boy in reality. He was perched on a tall spire that overlooked the bustling spaceport, eyes trained on the ever coming and going of sentient beings. He had been keeping watch through a scope of his longblaster.

"Good." An older voice came over the bucket's comms. "Stay there, little one. I'm not far from your position."

Their targets were a set of two Mando'ade and a single female. They had arrived in a truly ramshackle piece of junk. It looked like half a hyper jump from falling completely apart. The hull of the ship had a decent amount of carbon scouring on it. Like it had recently been in several fire fights. If the bickering of its passengers were any indication, they couldn't seem to stay out of fights. The girl had been small, lithe, petite. Young. Big brown eyes could be seen through the scope of the longblaster. If he had to guess, the boy would've thought her similar in age to him.

"They're on the move." He commed his partner, easing for his feet, still in the shadows as he attempted to track their progress. "Leaving the hangar bays headed south. South-east?"

"Stay in position." The elder barked, wind screaming around the mic pick up. "I'm almost there."

The boy didn't reply, eyes scanning the crowd, looking for their quarry.

"Luke?"

"Luke! We go together! You hear me?"

The bounty on the Mando'as was large. Nearly 500 credits each. The one for the girl had been a thousand. They couldn't afford for him to wait for more experienced backup to arrive. He had to stall them now.

"Luke!"

The boy slung the rifle over his shoulder one handed, the other easing the vibro knife out of it's sheath on his hip. As he melted from the shadows behind the trio.

"Luke?! Dammit kid!"

It was almost difficult to block Buir's voice out as he tried to sink into that calmness that always seemed to help him on the hunt.

The bigger one split off from his companions headed towards the busy street. The two left were smaller, slight. Won't give as much trouble as the Big One. Not that Luke underestimated the two left. But the Big One's weight and height had a heft to it, he didn't really want to fight with. Not by himself and with two other targets within reach.

'Good.' The boy thought. 'Just Girly and BeanPole left.'

They had been tracking the trio for months, nearly half a year even. Following them as they hustled from one part of the outer rim to another. Always managing to somehow slip from the grasp of the Imperials that chased them and the bounty hunters that caught their scents as well.

But finally. Finally they had managed to find them slipping.

Luke eased out of the shadows, knife held so the blade was against his forearm and attempted to grab the girl. He barely gave BeanPole anytime to get into a stance before Luke had sliced the blade across his ribs and was spinning with the girl. Managed to hit him in the temple with the back of the knife even, before the two finished their spin.

"Din~"

Her companion was good and out by then. Curled up on the middle of the road, holding this side where the armour weave didn't quite cover. As soon as she heard a hitched step, Girlie was already spinning around. Blasters in hand and pointed his direction.

'Good reaction timing,' the new hunter thought. A sharp pointed grin revealed teeth as he tilted his head. 'But those reflexives weren't quite fast enough. Not to his level anyway.'

"I don't know who the Kriff you are, asshole." She snarled. Brown eyes alight. Her feet were shoulder width apart, not favoring any specific side as she stared him down. Her hand and shoulders were taunt, barely giving him any openings to work with.

'She'll be good in a fight.' He thought, watching for a telegraphed move anywhere as he holstered his knife once more. He would use it, but it wouldn't work. Not against her. That was okay, maybe he could out wait for her to make a move.

"You want a fight, sha'buir?" She snarled, bolstering the blaster and raised her fists. "I might enjoy this a little."

"Lei'ka, you di'kut." BeanPole scrambled to his feet, not being stopped for long. Huh. He had been down shorter then Luke would have thought. "You can't just put fight every single person you come across."

"Shut up, Din."

Luke smiled in response, eyeing the girl. She was his height, slight. This might be a challenge to him for once. He inclined his head, settling into his own stance across from her.

The grin Lei'ka revealed had too many teeth to be considered appropriate in polite company. And it was far from tame in feral carnivorous company.

She made her move first, throwing her weight behind a punch that he easily directed and flowed around. Knocked her to the ground with a thud. She came backwards with a feral grin on her face and a kick to his back leg.

ALOR'IKA CHRONICLES

The air busted out of her chest leaving her deprived of oxygen and a flatter of teeth. Hard rocks and concrete dug painfully into her spine where she had landed. And Leia had landed hard. She hadn't taken a hit like that in years. Not since the beginning of when Jesse had finally convinced Rex to train her in ARC.

Leia wheezed, groaning as she slammed her left heel into his knee, trying to get him to fall, maybe even a stumble even. The stranger fell, but Leia was still struggling with trying to breathe that she couldn't pin him straight off.

He didn't have the same height or experiences like her uncles, but he definitely had the movements of someone trained. Trained well. Just like her.

She needed to pin his arms. Fast.

Legs came upwards, hauling his body backwards at the same time that he grabbed the front of her shirt. And they were in motion across the ground once more. Both of them traded off who got the upper hand in a series of blows and shifting weight too fast for anyone to pinpoint what exactly happened.

Space. I need space to move. Leia heaves, knocks an elbow into a bare throat and lungs free in the few seconds that he falls back.

Her opponent is good. Good enough to give someone with a decent amount of ARC training and grappling with opponents bigger than her enough trouble. That in itself is unusual. Leia is already sizing him up, throwing up arms to block the incoming blow to her face as a shin aims for her gut.

She knew as she fell once more that if she let up for even a moment, the other would have her pinned belly up on the floor within seconds and that it would all be over.

Her blaster had already been kicked away within seconds of him knocking her down the first time. In the last mad scrambled grapple of tangled limbs and heaving bodies, the knife from his hip is lost.

Fine. She could work with that. Snarling, Leia kicked upwards, using that flexibility that she had retained from being the smallest in any group, and hit him square in the jaw as she lunged upwards. Open hands hit him square in the sternum.

Maybe that would stall him.

Hopefully.

Leia heaved herself upwards and tumbled over to Din. Her friend was just attempting to get up, his progress slowed considerably by the flowing red that coated the hand pressed against his side.

Sithing karked hells that looked deep!

"Come on!" Leia ordered, throwing his free arm over her shoulders and yanked them into a stumbling run.

"Who the hell was that?!" Din panted beside her, every gasp a wheezing painful inhale.

"I don't karking know! You want me to turn around and ask?!" Leia snapped, seeing the hangar bay in the distance. "And you really need to lay off the Uj'alayi!"

"If we get out of here, I'll give you a week's worth of them!" Din yelled, stumbling a few steps before Leia grabbed his belt and hauled him forwards.

On their heels was the bounty hunter and a new companion. Possibly a partner? The new guy was wearing armour and a helmet that Din didn't quite recognize. He wasn't quite Mando'ade but there was definitely a reason the two were wearing red painted armour.

"That Mando'ade beskar'gam?" Din asked, head too fuzzy to really note the details.

"Now's not really the time, Din!" Leia railed at him, dropping her friend as they stumbled up the ramp and she took off in a stumbling tilt to the med locker.

Her head swam, fingers shaking with adrenaline and fear that she hadn't felt in ages as Leia attempted to pry the cabinet door open.

Her hands hadn't had this intermittent tremble to them in years and experiencing it again while Din was bleeding out!

"Come on!" Leia's fingers fumbled, finally jolting around the clasp. "Sithing hells! Work kark you!"

"Lei'ka?" Din's breathy words, send a jolt through her nervous system. Shocking her fingers into working as she finally slammed the door open with a bang.

Bacta?

Bacta?

Right, bacta on th- Leia grabbed a jar, other hand fumbling for the packet of triage bandages that she needed.

Kix taught her how to stock the med cabinet ages ago. Made sure she had memorized the order and contents for hours. Bacta and pressure gauze always were in easy reach. "Bleeding'll kill a man before anything else, ad'ika."

Leia finds Din pale, shoulders hunched. Side heaving and beginning to sit in a pool of his own blood, while it coated his fingers.

Takisit.

"Hold still, you chakaar. You want to bleed out on the floor?"

That too was all Kix's training. Don't ever let yourself panic while you're up to arms in a brother's blood.

Calm.

Right, she needed to be calm, while she did this. No shaking of hands.

She knew what to do. Kix had made sure of that. Especially with his no nonsense ways, he had made sure that she knew how to patch people back up.

Leia breathed and she grabbed some graze with a free hand. Yanked Din's hand away and slammed the other onto the wound. Put pressure on it. Stop the bleeding.

Din froze, some base level of his consciousness understanding an order and it was not a good idea to disobey. Not right now.

"Where's Paz?" He asked, trying to bring his brain into focus, as he flinched backwards from Leia's rough touch. She had the worst bedside manner in the whole Tribe.

"Hopefully getting back with those supplies." Leia peeled the gauze back, trying to determine how fast the blood was soaking into it.

Din flinched backwards, teeth clamping together with a clack as she pressed down harder.

"I told you to hold still didn't I?"

"Sweet force, that hurts."

"It's supposed to hurt." Leia slapped his shoulder, grabbed the bacta by her hip and pried the lid off. "It's just deep. So we're good on that front. But I really need your flak vest off so I can get this stuff on properly."

Din nodded, free hand tugging on the clasps.

"Sith. I don't have enough hands." Leia grabbed his blood coated hand, slammed it in place of her's and finished unbuckling the armour pieces.

"Stop. I got this. Just hold that." She slapped at his free hand, yanked the armour off and tugged at his flight suit, quickly becoming exasperated at him. "Would you work with me here?"

Din nodded weakly, shrugged his good arm out and huffed as she eased the other side down as well.

"This is gonna stink." Leia promised, scooping a handful of bacta free and slathering the knife cut.

Not only was it deep, it looked like it curved around his ribs just enough to make it frustrating for her to stitch closed. She looked up in the black T visor. "I can't close this with a needle. I'mma have to wrap this."

"Do it." Din sagged backwards. "Get it closed."

Hours later, Leia sat at the top of the ramp watching the sun set overhead. Paz still hadn't come back yet and it was making her worried. She knew Din would be okay long enough to track the older brother down, but she still didn't enjoy leaving him alone and injured. Not with the skills of that single bounty hunter on their tails. But on the other hand, she knew Paz couldn't face the hunters by himself. Nor their tail of the ever present Stormies.

She glanced backwards in the direction of where Din was knocked out in his berth, sleeping off the painkillers she had forced into his system. No, she couldn't leave him. Not like this. Not wounded.

She'll just have to wait until the morning to track Paz down and try and bail him out of trouble. Leia sighed, slapping the control to raise the ramp closed once more. They'll be fine for the night. The security measures were in place and nothing was gonna get past that during the night.

"Hold on for us, Paz."


	13. Intermission 2

**Lullabies and Tear stains in the Dark of the Night**

It was late when Jango got in. The weather was terrible, just like every night on Kamino. Pouring wet rain and grey overcast skies. But Jango didnt let the weather affect his mood.

He was home. Home to be with Boba. Home to be with Shmi. He was just glad to be home.

At last.

The Hunter dripped his way through the stark prestige hallways that seemed just on the other side of clinical to Jango. The lights were too bright and too cold, the walls too white and dull. Too sterile of an environment for Jango usually. Tonight, there was no thought to his surroundings. It was merely a hallway leading to a destination.

He had been gone too long that last hunt. And had gotten back far too late to see his son properly, but that was okay. He was back now. He could check on Boba and then head for bed. Greet the boy properly in the morning when the tiny terror was awake properly to give him one.

_"Like I never seen the sky before"_

The phrase was picked up easily by the mic pick up on his helm. It wasn't the strongest voice, soft in the corridors and somewhat out of tune. But it was gentle and kind and he knew instantly who it belonged to.

Shmi.

Shmi was singing, not at all a rare occurrence. Shmi sung while she tended her garden. She hummed while moving around their quarters. She coaxed a sing song-y type of a pattern under her breathe as she tore apart and fixed the various electronic items around the ship.

Shmi seemed to always be humming or singing or moving with a rhythm to her that Jango loved to watch.

_"But I will love you to end of time_

_Come what may"_

Jango pressed his hand to the door lock, opening it and stepped inside. His movements were silent, just like always. But he was not on a hunt this time. He was silent as he listened to the woman further inside sing soft and slow. Words that caused Jango to slow his motions, almost halting as he soaked in the feeling that he was home.

He was back and every time he left he had to leave this. A beautiful woman who constantly sung, a son that was too young to understand why he was constantly gone.

_"I will love you until my dying breathe_

_With you here in my arms"_

Jango placed the rifle on the rack by the door, straps coming undone as he removed gauntlets and vambraces, freeing his hands and arms to get the rest of the beskar'gam.

Oh how he had missed this. He missed this dreary rain filled world and the too white sterile halls. Not because of of the things that belonged to the Kaminoans. But because of the sights inside that hall door.

_"The world is a perfect place_

_Moving with such a perfect grace_

_My life is no longer a struggle_"

Finally, Jango pulled off the last of his armour, placing them in the chest that sat beside the door. Inside these walls, he had no need of it. He was not out hunting or out among the other Cuy'val Dar. Here, he was once again a simple man trying to provide for his aliit, making his way in the galaxy. Here he was nothing more then Jango.

_"It now revolves around something new_

_There's no sandstorm large enough_

_No wave too deep and wide_

_Sing out this song, you'll find me by your side"_

Jango removed his boots last, setting them underneath the rack holding the rifle before padding softly through the apartments. His body was loose and fluid as he moved, having lost the tightness from when he was outside on the hunt. Few things made him relax like this, but the singing of Shmi was a large part of it.

_"Storms may gather_

_And stars may collide_

_But I will love you_

_I will watch over you"_

There in front of the big plasteel windows that graced their living room, Shmi eased around the room. Rocking as she moved easily, smoothly. Her focus was on the babe in her arms, and soothing him. Jango paused in the doorway catching how the rain had stopped in the time it took him to get inside. A rare clear night, bright enough for Kamino's moons to glow outside and reflect off the waves. But it was not the sight outside his windows that caused the man to suck a breathe in.

It was Shmi.

She was oblivious, faced turned downwards. Her graceful dance across the floor. It would be a sight that did not soon leave the man's brain. Not for a long long time.

This is what he leaves everytime he takes a new bounty?

_"Until the end of time_

_Come what may"_

Jango knew those words. It was a common song he would catch her singing. More often then not she would sing it when she thought of Anakin. Of the missing child that left a hole in their aliit. As much as he enjoyed the sight of Shmi humming a song, trying to put Boba to sleep. Jango felt a pang in his heart. They were missing one.

Anakin should have been asleep on the couch, passed out with a blanket over top. Jango should have been able to have two sons to teach how to be Mando'ade. Two children to raise in the ways of the resol'nare.

But Jango only had one son with him. One child to teach these things to.

_"Come what may_

_The greatest thing you'll ever learn_

_Is that I will always love you"_

Jango stepped forward, arms wrapped around Shmi, holding her and Boba as he tucked his head beside her's. His voice was not as sweet or as gentle as Shmi's. It was a rough baritone that rumbled through the room. But the two together complimented each other. Shmi looked up at him in delight, her gaze softened as they held eyes. Jango smiled, touched foreheads together in a Kelabe as his body moved easily across the floor.

_Yes I will love you_

_Come what may_

_Until my dying breathe, the stars all gone_

_But I pray you forever remember my love."_

Boba and Shmi tucked safe in his arms once more. Silently, Jango promised the missing piece of their family that he wouldn't forget nor give up. He'd find Anakin one day and bring him home.


End file.
